2018 St Leger Final Review
It was the 40th running of the prestigious SA St Leger tonight at Angle Park with a very distinguished honour roll which now includes exciting prospect Victa Louise trained by Robyn Mackellar. With the likes of Festival Sal, Head Honcho, Lion Hearted, Worm Burner and last years winner On Fire some of the biggest names in greyhound racing on the list, Victa Louise’s performance tonight suggests she is also going to make a big impression in the future.
Victa Louise raced through the series undefeated winning her heat and semi-final in easy fashion however against a quality field tonight she would have to be at her best. Shooting for six wins in a row she began brilliantly from box 6 to easily lead to the first turn running a sizzling 4.38 first split. Fabwick for Kirin Corby, Nirimba Pirate for Lisa Rasmussen and Long Gully Gus for Paula Hearnden all moved into forward positions early to chase out after Victa Louise. Down the back straight the daughter of Fabregas and Victa Brooke was low flying in the lead with a second split of 16.84 while her competitors gave chase. Turning for home she was in no danger and went onto win by just over 2 lengths in a flying 29.80 for the 515m journey. Long Gully Gus never gave in running a solid second while Fabwick edged out Nirimba Pirate for third.
Victa Louise is locally bred by Joan Shadow and owned in partnership by Joan and husband Ron. There was plenty of joy and excitement on the winner’s dais for the presentation with family members all sharing in Victa Louise’s success. It was a terrific training performance by Robyn Mackellar with Victa Louise still only very young being a June 16 whelping and no one could begrudge success to owners Ron and Joan Schadow who are some of the nicest people you could meet.
Victa Louise has now won 8 races from her 11 starts and 1 placing with career prizemoney around $15,000 and looks to have a very bright future ahead.