Trainer Robert Heathcote is in line to have only his second Magic Million 2YO Classic runner after Dusty Tycoon kept her unbeaten record in tact at Doomben.
Dusty Tycoon ($2.60) led all the way to beat Miss Lot One ($5) by 1-1/2 lengths with another 1-1/2 lengths to Sip It Slow ($14) in the $125,000 QTIS Two-Year-Old (1050m).
The $72,500 prize money lifted Dusty Tycoon’s earnings to more than $115,000 which will guarantee her a start in the $2 million Classic on January 11.
Dusty Tycoon, a $160,000 Magic Millions Yearling Sales buy, is raced by a Mirunners syndicate which sold 1000 shares in the filly
The idea, backed by Racing Queensland, is to give small-time race goers a chance to race an expensive horse.
More than 100 of her owners were on hand to cheer her home and started to roar from the 250m mark.
Heathcote said he could remember having only one other Magic Millions Classic runner which was Greytfilly who ran ninth in 2013.
“I usually don’t have a Magic Millions horse because we breed some of ours and we also usually don’t have many early-season runners,” Heathcote said.
“But it is wonderful for racing to have so many people to have a Magic Millions runner. Now we can concentrate on how best to get her to the Millions.”
“I might freshen her and not give her another run. But there a couple of other options including running her the week before the Millions which has produced four of the past five winners.”
Winning jockey Dale Smith said Dusty Tycoon was a ready-made two-year-old type who would be further improved.
“She showed a lot pace and the fought on when challenged in the straight,” he said.
