It is a case of one challenge down and another one to come for harness racing\u2019s \u201cSuperwoman\u201d Kate Gath during the Queensland Inter Dominion.<\/p>\n
Gath, 42, the most successful female Group 1 driver in Australian history, is a passionate distance runner and smashed her personal best win last Sunday\u2019s Gold Coast Marathon.<\/p>\n
Just hours after a handful of drives on night one of the Inter Dominion at Albion Park, Gath headed to the Gold Coast, swapped her driving silks for running her and blasted around the 42.2km course in 3.03.27 \u2013 that\u2019s a sizzling 4min20sec p\/km pace.<\/p>\n
It was only Gath\u2019s fourth marathon, which includes New York in 2022, and she smashed her previous best by four minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hit a flat patch around the 30km mark, but worked my way through it and finished strongly,\u201d Gath said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bit warmer than I expected, but I was pleased with the time. I love my running, it\u2019s like meditation for me \u2026 the only \u2018me\u2019 time I get.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a regular thing for Gath to go out and run 20kms or more just hours before hopping in the sulky and driving in feature races at Melton.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re training for a marathon you have to stick to a plan, so I remember one time I ran 28kms and then had all the Breeders Crown finals at Melton that night,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Gath was back into harness mode soon after finishing the Gold Coast circuit last Sunday, out tending to and feeding the three Inter Dominion runners \u2013 Catch A Wave, Tango Tara and Hector \u2013 she and husband, Andy Gath, have in this series.<\/p>\n
Two of them, Catch A Wave and Tango Tara, ran well enough on night one to keep their hopes alive of a berth in Saturday week\u2019s $1 million Ladbrokes Inter Dominion pacing final at Albion Park.<\/p>\n
Gath\u2019s next challenge is to cement those spots, especially with stable star and eight-time Group 1 winner Catch A Wave, through Saturday night\u2019s second and final round of qualifying heats.<\/p>\n
Unlike Gath, consistency is a strong point for the gifted but enigmatic Catch A Wave.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe drives Andy and I insane at times, but we\u2019ve come to terms with that just being \u2018Tex\u2019 and we have to take the good with the bad,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s given us some of our greatest moments in the game, but he\u2019s also the most frustrating horse we\u2019ve trained with quirks and unpredictability.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe sort of hoped he\u2019d mature and grow out of things over time, but Tex is still just Tex.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ll think you\u2019ve got him spot on at home and then he\u2019ll go to the races and disappoint you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Case in point being Catch A Wave\u2019s lacklustre first-up fifth at Melton on June 28, which almost saw his Inter Dominion plans aborted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen he comes out a week later in the first round heats (last Saturday) and runs a fantastic race when we really didn\u2019t know what to expect. That\u2019s just him,\u201d Gath said.<\/p>\n
Catch A Wave, who boasts 22 wins and over $2.2 million, will need to be at the top of his game to snare a top four or five finish in the strongest heat of the series on Saturday night to secure a final spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only have we drawn the same heat as Leap To Fame and Don Hugo, but they have better draws than us,\u201d Gath said.<\/p>\n
If Catch A Wave shows the tenacity of his driver, making the final won\u2019t be an issue.<\/p>\n
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Adam Hamilton is a paid contributor writing on harness racing for News Corp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is a case of one challenge down and another one to come for harness racing\u2019s \u201cSuperwoman\u201d Kate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252395,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-252394","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114826712459729648","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252394\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}