The Phoenix is rising and the dogs are racing
Peter Fenemor • December 20th, 2024 12:55 PM
The Lisa Cole prepared outstanding greyhound He’s All Go is poised to break through the $200,000 stakes barrier during this evening’s Hatrick meeting.
The winner of 33 from 41 races requires just $1,376 to achieve the milestone for his tri-code owing White Horse Toaster syndicate.
He’s All Go will be wearing the TAB3 rug for his 520m assignment in the Moore Law Whanganui C4/5 (Race 8) which is an event that he is strongly favoured to win as his $1.25 Fixed quote indicates.
The recent Gr. 1 520m Spion Rose winner Fear To Tread makes her return to the Manukau Stadium on Sunday as part of a strong travelling team heading north for Cole.
Fear To Tread has won both of her previous Manukau 527m races and drawing the ace trap from where she has won all of her previous races from says she can maintain that tidy record in the Mt. Wellington TAB Stakes (Race 10).
Kennelmate Boom Dynamite is making his track debut from the four-trap. He is expected to make it a rather interesting paw wrestle for a long way should he use his known sharp early pace.
Ain’t It Fun has been stylishly winning Sunday 527m races for fun lately and she has the ability to overcome her trap-five draw here for her conditioners Wayne and Tracey Steele.
There are two open class 318m sprints carded for the meeting with the first of them the Trackside Sprint (Race 2) featuring a mouth-watering clash between last week’s sharp Lisa and Tracey Craik trained 18.16 318m winner Just One Grin, who will wear the TAB 3 rug and the inform Cole prepared Big Time Atlas.
He returns to Manukau to race from trap-five after a pair of strong recent Manawatu 375m wins. He owns solid previous 318m form.
The Hewlett Electrical Sprint (Race 9) is the other C5 318m dash where the inform Peter Heterick trained Big Time Lena is poised to make it a hat trick of Sunday 318m wins from the eight-trap.
Shades Of Space is bringing solid Hatrick 305m form north with her for Cole to make her track debut appearance. She can beat her trap-five draw.
Ladbrokes seeks back-to-back The Phoenix wins
The world’s richest greyhound race will be contested at The Meadows track in Melbourne on Saturday night.
The Sportsbet Phoenix (Race 10, 11.54pm NZT) carries an A$1.65 million stake, with the winning connections taking home A$1 million.
The Sportsbet Phoenix is a slot race, contested over 525m, which understandably has attracted an outstanding field of high-class greyhounds.
Last year’s winner Schillaci ($4.60 – TAB Fixed) has come up trumps with the box draw, being allocated the one-trap for his trainer Jihad Talgi and his slot holder Ladbrokes Racing Club, who also owned the winning slot last year.
The recent Melbourne Cup winner Explicit ($3.20) will trap away wearing the pink racing vest for his conditioner Jason Thompson. He has to do everything right from out there in what is quoted as his last career race.
Understandably the winning prospects extends over the entire field. For example the local conditioner Jacqueline Greennough has trained two-previous The Phoenix winners with Wow’s She Fast. She has the ideally drawn trap-two contender Big Energy ($6) racing here.
And it is Big Energy whom the Sky Racing on-course anchor Dave Carlson has heading his The Phoenix selections.
“Big Energy has won both of his previous races from the two-trap and he can maintain his winning record from there in this race - he is value at $6. He was unlucky in the Melbourne Cup when he was checked out of it.
“Last year’s winner Schillaci is perfectly drawn in the one-trap. He ran the quickest first sectional in the Melbourne Cup before he was checked.
“Yes, you have to respect Explicit, who is a freak greyhound, although I feel he is badly drawn out in trap-eight. Look, he can run sub-sonic times if he pings the traps.
“I’m going for Big Energy over Schillaci and Explicit,” advised Carlson.
Know Defence proves too strong in Invercargill Group 2 732m
It was an all-the-way victory for the Garry Cleeve mentored Know Defence in Wednesday’s running of the $20,000 Galway Cup at Group 2 level over 732m. (Click here to watch a replay of the race)
Know Defence jumped cleanly from trap-two to lead into the first turn, stalked by the Matt Roberts trained Chief Dribble. Racing down the back straight Chief Dribble attempted to cut inside the pacemaker, however the gap closed which left Know Defence in the clear.
Know Defence maintain his solid pace, arriving at the judge holding a three-quarter length margin over the fast finishing Riley Evans prepared Goldstar Ginny after 43.43 seconds of hard out chasing action.
Grande Vue Ace was remarkable in the manner that she recovered from a decent first turn check to storm home to secure third, a further 7.75 lengths behind for her conditioner Bob Pringle.
“Know Defence did what he had to do – lead them early and make sure the others couldn’t catch him. Yes, Chief Dribble closed the gap, however he lost momentum, leaving our fella clear.
“It is very pleasing to win a Group 2 race with Know Defence, who keeps on running strong staying races,” Cleeve stated about his home-bred and co-owned (with Gaylene Turnwald) son of Mepunga Blazer and Know Witch who has now won 14 races from his 55 previous assignments, amounting to $79,771 in stake earnings.
Cleeve was unsure about the immediate racing plans for Know Defence, saying,” We’ll probably just keep him ticking over around Addington, then take him north for the 779m staying feature on Auckland Cup day (January 26).”
Photograph at the top of the Page: The trophy for the world’s richest greyhound race, the A$1.65 million The Phoenix. Credit: Greyhound Racing Victoria
