Michael Howard and Tim O'Connor
31 DEC 2021
Queen Of Crime lay in wait and when opportunity knocked she pounced with a Group 1 winning finish to score for driver Glen Craven.
Famed reinsman Brian Gath and Illawong Stardust made a bold bid for the Aldebaran Park 4YO trotting mares crown, holding out favourite Im Ready Jet early, but the relentless pace came at a cost and again it was a Matt Craven-trained runner who was perfectly poised to take advantage on the big stage. “She’s always been just behind the good ones,” Matt Craven said of Queen Of Crime. “She’s just getting bigger and stronger and she’s got a lot of confidence at the moment.”
It was also a terrific result for owner-breeders Pam and Tony Coniglio, who had been patient with their pacing bred mare. She’s by Sportswriter out of their 12-time winning mare Our Crime Of Passion, who’s previous foal was Crime Writer, a pacer who’s almost crashed through $150,000 in winnings. Queen Of Crime followed a similar path initially, with her first two starts being in pacing events for a fourth and second before returning as a three-year-old as a trotter. Remarkably, her squaregaiting debut was a seventh at Ballarat, when she finished 77 metres behind Rules Dont Apply, winner of tonight’s four-year-old entires and geldings' division.
Tonight delivered the sixth win of her 27-start career and a thrilling Group 1, which she registered with a blitz to the line amid a 56.9-second last half. “It’s always great to win a Group 1, but to do with the family, Matty, and Pam and Tony … I’ve had an association with them for a while. It’s great to win a race for them.”
