The win was the silver lining he was looking forward to after a break down on his way to Gloucester Park the night prior saw Misstiano a late scratching from race three on the card.
The four-year-old daughter of Sweet Lou has been lightly raced since her debut in November 2021 as alate two-year-old, and now at four-years-old has had just the 15 starts for six wins and seven placings, showing she could be a handy mare going forward.
Driven by Dylan Egerton-Green on the night, the pair were off three wide early in search of the front after starting from barrier five on the front line, and within a few hundred metres they had gained the top where they stayed, claiming a narrow victory on the line in 1:59:4over the 2190m trip.
Bred by KTC Bloodstock and purchased at the 2020 APG yearling sales as lot 452 for $58,000 by Oz-West Pacing, D Keating, Lets Collect Syndicate and P Morris, Foley was always going to have the mare in his stable, with his involvement in the syndicate from the get-go.
"We paid too much for her, but I was pretty keen on her and Rob (Tomlinson) was too, and someone else was pretty keen on her too, it was very interesting, there was a bit of a bidding war for her,
"She feels like she's going to just keep improving.
With stomach issues troubling her as a youngster, the decision was made when she was an early two-year-old to put her back in the paddock, and the time to allow her to develop appears to have worked wonders, with her current strike rate one to be admired
"She had a few issues early on in her career, but I think she's just starting to get it all together now and she's been going along really good,
I had her ready to go as a two-year-old early on, but she just wasn't handling it, I gave her time to sort it all out,
She's had a couple of starts and then we put her back out each time and she's now seems to be able to handle everything."
Foley hopes that Dame Valour can make her way to metropolitan mares' company going forward.
Foley, who is currently sitting on 85 wins made his debut to training in the 1993/1994 and he hasn't looked back. With his interest sparking when he was just 14 years old when he would help Jesse Moore with yard work, with his love of the sport has only growing since then.
A hobby trainer from the start, with only one or two in work at any time, Foley has experienced Group 1 glory twice in his lifetime, with star mare Ruby Dazzler claiming the 2007 Diamond Classic and then the WA Oaks the year later in 2008, but some of his racing highlights was when he head to the east coast with Big Town Walton
"I've been a bit lucky; I've had a horse run in the Inter Dominions with Kim Prentice, Big Town Walton,
"That was probably the highlight of it all, that was in 2003.
"He was raced by Kim, but I went over with him and spent four weeks over there, that was really, really good, he ran fourth in the final at Harold Park, that was a really good experience."
There is no end in sight for Foley, with his love of the industry never wavering, the 61-year-old hopeful he has many more years to enjoy doing what he loves.
