Another Sunday at the Bridge
11 races around the horse shoe track and the Spring weather had somewhat deserted us, and we were back in the cooler conditions we are all so fond of! Although there were 11 races there were two trials before the first.... Shadow Mist went over the 395m in a smoking 22:02 and then Oakvale Beauty for Nathan Wilson went over the same distance in 22:09. Both dogs I assume will be Adelaide Cup bound but imagine seeing them in a Match Race in a week or so!! Hooly Dooly!
Anyway, back to the actual racing and we saw some good performances on the night.
Race 1 was a maiden and Spring Vader for Greg Board was favourite. Actually most times there is a “Board” dog with “Spring” in it’s name they start pretty short and Spring Vader showed why running out a big 6 length win at a short $1.60 price.
Back To Boss lined up favourite in the second of the night for Ben Rawlings and delivered the goods but not as easily as punters might have expected with second elect, Allinga Frost, leading for a lot of the race and just getting collared down the straight.
The grade 6 heats were next up and from nowhere Joe’s Gold – old Princey boy – has pulled one out of the hat! His time wasn’t flash but I really like this dog. He’s the brother of my boy and was so timid when he come over but now is getting a bit of swagger about him and is starting to realise that when he wins he’s getting cheers from strangers....and he likes it!
See You Smile took out the second grade 6 heat for the Rawlings kennel. He went a lot quicker than the first heat and notched up his second win at the bridge and his first over the 395m.
The third, and final, heat of the grade 6 aseries was won by Mamore for the Costa/Stamenkovic team. They are actually a team so no bias there as they own and train their dogs. Mamore, and several of their other dogs, have won up the straight – including the inaugural straight track winner Halfeti Rose – but the win of Mamore was their first win on the horse shoe track.
Race 6 was a Grade 6 Final. Ossie had one dog in, Vadim had 2 and Gavin Harris had 3. I did hear Gav before the race say he’d ran 4th 5th and 6th ..... unfortunately he was right after some interference in the race. It was the soul runner of Ossie that used box 1 to perfection, hugged the rail the entire the race and saluted in front of the fast finishing Rock It Fabio.
Call Me Billy bobbed up in the seventh race and gave the Rawlings camp their third winner for the night. With Ben out of action after recent ankle surgery, his partner Ash has been getting the dogs to the tracks and doing the boxing and with her current strike rate, Ben might see more time on the pine even if he’s right for selection...
Nicole price rugged up Lektra Theory in the Rural City of Murray Bridge Stake and the big boy went bang. He didn’t jump that well, lobbing third early, but with his long stride and the long straights up the Bridge he was always going to build momentum and he did just that. Up the home straight he got his 36kg frame in great rhythm and stretched right and won by nearly 4 lengths. Nicole was also excited before the race when she told me they’d found a property in Lewiston and would be moving down from the Riverland.
Race 9 saw Dashing Mickey line up from box 1. Little Mickey changed kennels recently and went from Gavin Harris’ to join Don Foster. Not a wholesale change with both training out of McLaren Vale but they say any change is as good as a holiday and little dashing Mickey agreed. She’d had 1 win from her previous 52 starts and last night made it 2 wins from 53 and 1 from 1 with Don and went best of the night in the process.
The 10th saw Yvonne King train the quinella with Allinga Ollie getting the nod and Allinga Mal running second. Yvonne is also part owner of Ollie with Tracey and Trevor Davey. I’d say that makes them a team but that definition seems a little ambiguous of late, but they all posed for a team photo after the race. Sweetening the win was the 10 bucks Tracey laid out on the quinella and collected 7 pineapples in return. Onya Trace!
The final race of the night was taken out by Cheque Money for Don Turner. I spoke to Don at kennelling and asked what he had in. He told me he had one in the first and one in the last..... that’s always the way but I did say if you could win the last it’d make it worth the wait. He did win but there was a bit of mischief in the race that helped.
It was a good night of racing and we’ll do it all again next Sunday
Anyway, that was Murray Bridge for the 13th of September 2020 and that was my story!