ROY Roots jnr welcomed gate one for Miss Streisand and hoped for luck from the back row with Pitch Perfect in the Keinbah trainer's chase for a first group 1 victory at Melton on Saturday night.
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Filly Miss Streisand and gelding Pitch Perfect will contest the three-year-old Breeders Crown finals with Chris Geary taking the reins.
Roots jnr also has The Black Prince in the group 2 four-year-old colts and geldings race and High Rolling in the $24,000 Graduate Cup.
Miss Streisand was second to Breeders Crown favourite Our Princess Tiffany twice in Queensland but she has been off the pace in Victoria. She led but faded to finish last in the heat and hung for fifth in the semi final.
Roots jnr hoped the prime gate would put Miss Streisand in the contest but he was unsure if she could hold out Our Princess Tiffany, which is in three, for the lead.
"It probably guarantees us a top three or four finish if we can let the good one go," Roots jnr said.
He believed his filly "was still a run short" in the semi.
"After the race she pulled up a little bit big which means she's probably going to be at her top this week," he said. "She had a bit of a rough week the first week we were here, but she's catching up."
Pitch Perfect placed in his heat and semi but drew the inside of the back row for the final.
"He's following out [100-1 shot] Revolt, which is probably not ideal," he said. "But sometimes you think they are a bad draw in those big races and they can be a blessing."
Roots jnr was impressed with Pitch Perfect's semi-final run, where he sat behind the leaders and finished well for third.
"He went super," he said.
"I wish they had gone a bit quicker through the middle. He probably would have went a lot closer if they had not jacked up through the middle then dashed home.
"He might nearly have got them."
He believed The Black Prince would be hard to beat in his race after proving the best of his Victorian team in training. High Rolling was second in group 3 company last week. Both have gate five on Saturday night.
"We're super happy with him and High Rolling returned to form last week as well," he said.
"She got beat but they were 0.8 of a second outside the Bendigo track record.
"She went up and did all the work so it was good to see her back."