2013 Howard Ashton Final Box Draw
Last night at Angle Park there were three fantastic Semi Finals of the 2013 Howard Ashton where the first two placegetters from each Semi and the two fastest third placegetters qualified for next week’s Group 3 Final. The fastest qualifier for the Final was the Tony Lagana trained Fire Tyson who continues to dominate the local racing scene with another brilliant victory in the second Semi Final last night running a sizzling 29.71 for the 515m journey. He started a very short priced favourite from the red box and whilst crossed on the first turn by Nicholas Jack he showed his class to rail hard off the back straight and run away with a strong victory by over 4 lengths with Jetson Kist charging home late for second and Nicholas Jack hanging on well for third. Fire Tyson will be looking to add to his impressive record of 19 wins from 37 starts and career prizemoney of just under $65,000 next week and whilst he has drawn nicely in box 3 the other two Semi Final winners have drawn to his inside making for an interesting run to the first turn.
The first Semi Final was taken out by the Leonard Wilson trained Cosmic Way who showed his true ability with a powerful finish over the concluding stages to round up his rivals and claim victory in a solid 30.11. He won by almost a length from Lylas who just failed to lead from start to finish and Pandora Kist who hung on well for third. Cosmic Way has always had a boom on him since he ran a sensational 29.62 in winning a Maiden Final at Angle Park at only his second lifetime start however since then he has always seemed to find a way to get beaten. He has drawn perfectly out of box 1 next week and certainly has the ability to be one of the strongest chances. Race favourite Emerley Lover for Troy Murray never recovered from interference on the first turn and could only manage fifth in the run to the line.
The third Semi Final was a rough house affair with many greyhounds finding trouble early including one of the series favourites Token McLaren for Tania Foster who got shoved sideways on the first turn and lost all chance of qualifying eventually running sixth. Flying Tee for Ossie Chegia who came from box 8 was able to miss most of the interference and race to the front in the early stages. He raced away for a very impressive victory in a flying 29.84 in winning by over 4 lengths from Stormy Kist who showed good early speed and Victa Brooke who ran another solid race to fill the minor money. It was Flying Tee’s second start at headquarters since coming from Queensland with his first start being a tight defeat to Fire Tyson last week in the Heats. He has drawn even better next week closer to the rails out of box 2 and his trainer knows how to win big feature races so he has to be one of the top chances.
The Final field in Box Draw order is:
1. Cosmic Way Leonard Wilson
2. Flying Tee Ossie Chegia
3. Fire Tyson Tony Lagana
4. Victa Brooke Ron Schadow
5. Lylas Bosco Stamenkovic
6. Nicholas Jack Edward Medhurst
7. Jetson Kist Peter Hurley
8. Stormy Kist Peter Hurley
9. Pandora Kist (1st Res) Peter Hurley
10.Victa Scott (2nd Res) Ron Schadow
The $36,000 Group 3 Howard Ashton Final will be run next Thursday night 30th May. It will be race 8 on the program and is listed to jump at 9.11pm (SA time). It will be a super nights racing with not only the Group 3 Final but also the Shane McQueen Heats programmed for Open greyhounds over the 600m.