THE Big Dance story has all the hallmarks of another racing rags to riches fairytale.
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Remember Takeover Target, the $1250 purchase by Queanbeyan taxi driver Joe Janiak who went on to win Group One races in Australia, England and Singapore and earned more than $6,000,000 in prizemoney.
The Big Dance, a $750 purchase by trainer Danny Curran, has a long way to reach the heights of Takeover Target, but the Bendigo filly couldn’t have been more impressive in winning the $250,000 VOBIS Gold Rush (1200m) at the BJC on Saturday.
Two-year-old’s going close to breaking track records is pretty much unheard of, but that’s what The Big Dance did on debut.
Her time of 56.79 seconds was was just outside Little Pearler’s track record set in the late 1990’s.
The time was also four lengths quicker than what three-year-old Snappy Esprit ran to win race three on Saturday.
“The first time we let her go we got her to do some three-quarter pace and she did it in 11.2 seconds and the horse she worked with has been in the paddock ever since,’’ an elated Curran said.
“She’s had a couple of gallops where she’s broken 20 seconds for 400, so we thought she was pretty good, but you don’t know until you get to the races.”
Curran bought the daughter of Oamaru Force at the 2014 Inglis VOBIS Gold yearling sales.
“She went through the ring at 10 in the morning. Nobody was there,” Curran said.
“That’s just how it is. Sometimes you get lucky.”
Curran sold shares in the filly to some of his stable clients for just $200.
First prize for Saturday’s win was $150,000 plus $23,000 in bonuses.
"They all wanted a piece of her and I was beating them off with a stick at the end," Curran said.
"We went to the VOBIS Gold sale to buy a VOBIS Gold horse to maybe win a maiden.
"Sometimes dreams come true."
The Big Dance (backed from $61 midweek into $10) won by 2-1/4 lengths from Bundy Red ($71), with Miss Gidget ($4) a short neck away third.
Last month Curran won the Group Three Typhoon Tracy Stakes at Moonee Valley with $101 outsider Written Dash.
"It was fantastic to win with Written Dash, but I'm even more over the moon to win with this filly," he said.
"I really think she might be a spring horse because, to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't work Written Dash with her."