by Michael Howard

Trainer-driver Bill Trembath is rapt to just have a runner in the Race To Royalty, but in Hows The Memory he may have much more than just a competitive starter.

Trembath’s two-year-old filly announced herself with an impressive victory in her TAB Breeders Crown heat at Shepparton, upstaging a well-rated rival.

“I have been down and watched a few times, but never had a runner there,” he said of the Breeders Crown, but that all changed when Hows The Memory ran down Australian Pacing Gold winner Nostra Beach last Tuesday.

“We had one nominated a few years ago but they never lived up to it, this one has. To be in the running is something special.”

Making it all the more so, Hows The Memory – owned and bred by Dennis and Joanne Howe – is by Mach Three out of Distant Memory, Trembath’s talented juvenile who won a Vicbred Super Series and a Bathurst Tiara Final as a two-year-old in 2013. They remain the greatest stakes wins of Trembath’s 30 years-plus training career and it makes the new filly’s emergence all the more satisfying.

“When you have done it all the way through and had them as a foal and broken them in, then when they race it means so much to you,” Trembath said.

Hows The Memory certainly hasn’t been rushed into emulating her mare.

“I gave her a trial early on, then put her out for six weeks to help her relax, and she has just kept stepping up each time.”

A debut win at Leeton on July 3 preceded a second placing at Shepparton on July 21 and a further victory at Bathurst on July 30, all in country class.

Last Tuesday signalled her first step into the metropolitan class spotlight and she was outstanding against a formidable rival, with Nostra Beach’s nine starts having delivered $189,400 in stakes courtesy of four wins and three second placings.

“We gave ourselves a bit of a chance because at Bathurst she ran home in 26.7,” Trembath said.

From gate one Trembath kicked along early and ensured Nostra Beach’s driver Mark Pitt had to earn the lead, then come the straight it was a race in two and Hows The Memory emerged from leader’s back to pinch the win by a half-neck. The 2:01.1 mile rate was the quickest of the night’s Breeders Crown heats.

“It was good. We were lucky we drew well, but to beat one of Emma’s is not easy,” he said.

He will now hope to turn a heat win into a semi-final top six placing that will deliver him a shot at the big dance.

“Your draw plays a big part, we will just be hoping to get through to the finals,” he said.