Black Chip ready to cash in The Bonfire
South Australia’s local participants are set to enjoy a big night at Angle Park on Thursday night with the fourth edition of the Festival of Fire series being held.
Born out of SA’s attempt at a Phoenix bid, the Festival of Fire sees seven feature finals run across all distances from 342m up to 730m and is only open to South Australian participants and greyhounds who have been domiciled locally.
Arguably one of the more intriguing finals of the night will be The Bonfire, which is the middle-distance feature on the Festival of Fire program.
Two heats of the race were held last week with the Liz Chegia trained He’s Magic showing great speed on the rail to win the second heat in a slick 34.17.
The first heat was taken out by the Michelle Moon-trained Black Chip who overcame a somewhat troubled run to win strongly in 34.53.
Since returning to South Australia from a New South Wales stint with trainer Moon and co-trainer Vadim Roz , Black Chip has found a new lease on life and Roz can’t quite put his finger on what has changed, apart from returning home to South Australia.
“He was up for sale, he was up as a giveaway,” Roz said about Black Chip.
“He had a fail to chase at Dubbo when he got distracted. It wasn’t that his ability wasn’t there, he just didn’t like Dubbo and he wasn’t the biggest fan of Temora and he was a difficult dog to place.”
“We put him away for six months in the paddock and then we came back here and gave him one trial at Gawler where he went well and then he just went bang, bang, bang, so maybe he was just happy to come back home.”
It was a huge effort in the heat last week from the homebred son of Hard Style Rico x Gemma Nismo, when he exited box three.
Traditionally a slow beginner, he did leave the boxes marginally quicker than normal but immediately found himself amongst traffic and with some work to do. After checking off heels as they went through the pen for the first time, he continued to rail through, before having his momentum halted up the back straight.
Despite this, he rebalanced and unleashed a dazzling finish, powering through to the lead and winning in 34.53, which is clearly not indicative of what he is capable of. That win pleased Roz, who was taken by the tenacity that he showed in the run.
“I thought the win was good, he got sort of held up a little bit and there were a couple of checks there and then he burst through the line and won. I think he’s a lot better than what that win was,” Roz said.
“Obviously he’s gone 34.30 running fourth (four runs ago), but I think last week he just couldn’t get that clean and uninterrupted run, which he needs. It was nice to win the race, he just had to run top four. He’s made the final, so he’s one step closer to glory.”
Box two is the challenge that awaits Black Chip in the final on Thursday and whilst Roz is pleased with being drawn near the inside, conceding that he couldn’t draw better, he is concerned with the pace drawn outside and understands that a level of luck will be required if Black Chip is to win the race.
“I think he’s drawn as good as he can draw, the key runner is Fear The Dragon, that dog will either make it for him or break it for him,” Roz said.
“I think Fear The Dragon should come out and lead and hopefully push to the centre of the track on the first corner which he does past the catching pen, which will leave (Black) Chip on the rail, which is where he wants to be.
“There's a bit of speed, Gavin’s dog can begin (Zinfandel Trace), then you’ve got Canya Striker and He’s Magic, they’ve got speed as well. So there will be a lot of speed early but only one dog can lead and I think that will be Fear The Dragon.”
“The key for (Black) Chip’s success on the night will be that he will need Fear The Dragon to lead all the way to the 530m boxes and run cracking splits and that’s when I think his petrol might be running low.
“I think he will put together a 34.30 sort of run and if (Black) Chip can stalk him on the rail, then I reckon he can run him down. I think he’s a chance of winning, he’s probably a better chance of top three if everything goes right, but he’s just going to need a little bit of luck. He should go well, but anything can happen.”