IT was a Evil Saturday night at Melton, but Amanda Turnbull could not have been happier as she notched up the 10th Group 1 win of her career.
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The talented The Lagoon trainer-driver produced yet another masterful performance in the gig to see Speak No Evil fly home and take out the $100,000 Benstud Queen Of The Pacific (2,760 metres).
Speak No Evil was not just a Queen either, with Saturday night's success seeing her the winner of Victoria's annual Mares Triple Crown and earning a $10,000 prize.
It's little wonder Turnbull had a huge smile as she accepted the Queen Of The Pacific Trophy.
"What a night, it's been great," Turnbull told Trots Vision.
"Just so happy for the horse, she's come along a long way in our stables, she's a bit cranky but yeah, she's been good."
Turnbull has been based in Victoria for more than four months, border restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic seeing her remain in there.
While she has been unable to return home, Turnbull has found good success.
In late July she steered a winning treble at Shepparton to take her career tally of driving wins to 2,000.
In August Turnbull again drove three victors at a Kilmore meeting and last month there was another treble at Echuca.
Across the past month Turnbull has notched up 14 wins, two of them having come with five-year-old mare Speak No Evil who only recently joined her team.
"I'd love to get home, but I can't at the moment," she said.
"My plan was to come for winter while we didn't know what was going on through COVID. I haven't been able to get home since. My stable's gotten bigger and bigger here and I've got a really, really nice team now."
Having won the Angelique Club Pace a week earlier, Speak No Evil was a $7.80 chance for the Queen Of The Pacific due to her barrier 11 draw.
While favourite Bettor Enforce ($2.60) was able to lead from barrier two, Turnbull settled Speak No Evil five back in the running line.
It was not until they headed down the back straight at Melton for the final time Turnbull made a move, working through the middle.
As the final bend loomed Turnbull was able to get Speak No Evil clear, guiding her four wide through the bend. On balancing at the top of the straight the mare then unleashed a blistering turn of speed.
She hit the front with 50m to go and went on to win by 1.4m over Bettor Enforce in a 1:55.6 mile rate.
"I thought I would have to do something like that. I didn't want to have to go too early at the bell, just because I thought they ran so quick down the back, but it was probably a [more] slowly run race than I thought it would be," Turnbull said.
"When she got the run through the middle and those ones three-wide were struggling a bit I was pretty confident, because she shows a lot of speed at home.
"She's probably better with a sit at home, so I was confident she could do it, just needed the luck in the run."
