WHILE the opening night of this year's Gold Crown Carnival brought heartbreak with it for Mat and Gemma Rue, on Friday when it drew to a conclusion there were smiles on their faces.
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It was because the hard-working husband and wife trainer-driver combination picked up a win with one of the talented fillies they have such a high opinion of, Joes Joy.
Heading into the 33rd edition of the Bathurst Harness Racing Club's annual carnival, the Rues were hoping to qualify both Joes Joy and Christiano Rose for the Group 1 final of the Gold Tiara for two-year-old fillies.
But Joes Joy over-raced in her heat as the $1.55 favourite and ended up third, while Christiano Rose - the hot $1.30 favourite for her qualifier - galloped in the opening metres.
It was a tough blow for the Rues to take.
"I've had a pretty stressful week and carnival actually. We had this filly here [Joes Joy] and another nice filly in the heats and coming into the series, I was quite confident, the way that they were both going, that they could probably both win their heats," Mat Rue admitted on finals night.
"Things didn't go to plan and I've been a bit stressed out this week trying to get things back on track."
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However, in placing third in her heat, Joes Joy had still done enough to qualify for the Gold Tiara Gold Consolation (1,730 metres), the opening race of the bumper finals evening.
It was in that Listed race that the Rues got something to smile about.
Going from barrier three as the $1.85 favourite, the Roll With Joe x Jungle Falcon filly showed gate speed and was able to cross and take the lead.
From there she was never headed.
She snuck a couple of lengths on her rivals at the top of the home straight and went on to win by 5.6m, clocking a 1:58.3 mile rate.
"She relaxed quite nice tonight - I don't know what was so hard about doing that last week. But it's good, it's a great win for Ray [Connolly] and his family. They've been great supporters of our barn now for awhile and they are great people," Mat Rue said.
"I know it's only the consolation, but from the bad draw she had [as an emergency] in the final, she would have earned more money in this than the final anyway."
