IN his more than two decades as a trainer Bernie Hewitt has had some brilliant horses in his stable, but could he finally have discovered a true jewel?
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On Saturday night at Albion Park the Georges Plains trainer-driver steered his two-year-old filly Jewel Melody to a commanding 18.8 metres victor.
That in itself was impressive, but the story is better than just having a filly crush her rivals.
Jewel Melody did it in the Group 1 Albion Park Gold Brisbane APG Sales Graduates 2Y0 Final (1,660 metres).
It makes it three Group 1 wins thus far for Jewel Melody in her maiden season of racing. All up from her 10 starts she's won six times and never placed worse than third.
No other horse in all Hewitt's years of training has had a two-year -old record like that.
"She's certainly a very smart juvenile, it's one of those things, they don't come along very often, so you've got to make hay while the sun shines," Hewitt said.
"She's different to a lot of them, a lot of horses will do a campaign and they are just telling you they want the paddock, but she's just thriving."
Having already won Bathurst's Gold Tiara Final in March and the APG Two Year Old Fillies Final at Menangle in April, Jewel Melody was a short $1.09 favourite for her latest Group 1 assignment.
She delivered on that favouritism.
Jewel Melody showed gate speed from her barrier two draw to cross and take the lead, Hewitt then rating her nicely through the first lap.
But as she headed down the back straight Jewel Melody wanted to go. Hewitt let her.
With 400m to go she led by 25 metres and from there she cruised to a commanding victory in a 1:55.6 mile rate.
"Honestly she was just a class above them, a class above the type of horse she was racing," Hewitt said.
"She probably could've gone a lot quicker, but there was no-one else there, she was just bowling along by herself, she wanted to stretch and lengthen out.
"I didn't actually ask too much of her, as I said she did it well within herself."
While Hewitt, who took his record as a trainer to 1,737 wins as Jewel Melody saluted, is enjoying the chance to work with such a gifted runner, he's not the only one.
Owners Wayne and Julie Loader are also delighted that their Jewel is living up to her name. She's already delivered more than six times her purchase price in prize money.
"Wayne and I went up to the Brisbane Sales, Wayne had brought her sister the year before, she was called Indy Jewel, and we liked this one better, the look of her, so we got it," Hewitt said of the Captaintreacherous x Our Sweet Melody filly.
"John Boserio won an APG race a couple of years ago with the brother Hes Sweet - so we're obviously on the right track if we can win those sort of races.
"Since then I've brought another one with a few mates and put Wayne in, it's another sister who broke in really good at home this autumn. So hopefully we're on the right track and getting the right horses."
Whether or not the new filly can find success remains to be seen, but there's no doubting Jewel Melody's quality.
Her next challenge will see her chasing another Group 1 prize in the QBRED Triad two-year-old fillies series.
"Her next Group 1 series will be a Queensland bred one, so we obviously have to get her through the heats and keep her without any problems and get to there and do the job," Hewitt said.
"She's eligible for those sort of races, so she might as well be going around. She's a very mature two-year-old.
"I'm not sure what's sort of going to stick their hand up and say that they're good horses, so it will be interesting to see."
Beyond that there is also the Australasia Breeders Crown series, which has $300,000 finals.
But as Hewitt says "It's in October, so at the moment we're just one step at a time."
"That would be a real test for her, that's all the fillies in Australia and New Zealand. I have run in it before and run second a couple of times," he said.
"If we think she needs a spell then she won't go to the Breeders Crown, at the moment we're just focussed on this next Queensland race, but the good part about it is she's smashing her feed bucket and just looking terrific, bright."
Looking terrific and bright - just as a precious jewel should.
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