Fantastic Ada powers to SA St Leger Crown
Fantastic Ada powers to SA St Leger Final
A strong 12-race program was run at Angle Park on Thursday night with the feature race of the evening being the 2024 SA St Leger final.
While the Rawlings and Harris kennels held a strong hand in the final, combining to have seven of the eight runners in the final after the scratching of Blue Intensity, which was the runner for Kirin Corby.
However, it was Fantastic Ada who claimed the race taking out the St Leger final with an excellent run for trainer Liz Chegia to continue her excellent recent record.
From box five, Zinfandel Evie showed plenty of early speed to lead to the first turn, with Fantastic Ada able to get a nice run in behind and settling in second from box six.
With trouble in behind the leading pair after Ferocious Ivy went wide and Peaky Book cut to the rail, Zinfandel Evie was able to open up a three-length lead with Fantastic Ada a further two lengths clear of the chasing pack.
Fantastic Ada was able to close the gap, drawing level on the final turn before she pulled away on the straight and winning by two and a half lengths in 30.64.
Zinfandel Evie for Gavin Harris was able to hang on for second place just ahead of the fast-finishing Peaky Book and My Khaleesi, both for Ben Rawlings who finished in third and fourth place respectively.
Speaking on the dais during the post-race presentation, Chegia kennel representative Steve Jones said they were feeling confident heading into the home turn that Fantastic Ada would be able to power home and win.
The SA St Leger success continues an excellent run of feature race success for Fantastic Ada since crossing into South Australia in October.
She now boasts a career record of ten wins and five seconds and has claimed three feature events in that time.
Fantastic Ada claimed the Murray Bridge Country Summer Oaks in December and backed that up by winning the Inferno in the Festival of Fire series while also making the final of the John Gray in January.
A good night continued for the Chegia team in race nine, with Fantastic Helga producing a sensational run from box one to win a grade six race in 30.61 and blitzing her rivals by more than ten lengths, in what was a best of the night time.
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Maiden double caps a big night for Bosko
Early on the Angle Park card, there were two maiden races which were both taken out by the training team of Bosko Stamenkovic and Christine Costa.
The first winner was Merindah City who claimed the first maiden in race two with a nice run from box four.
Sharing favouritism with the Nicole Price trained Dark Thrill in a clash between two chasers who competed in the Gawler Golden Maiden series.
Showing plenty of early speed with 5.26 first split, Merindah City was able to find the early lead and then get through the field again down the back straight before winning by a length in 31.09.
The second maiden winner was Footrot Fan who crossed over the field from box eight getting onto the rail and opening up an advantage down the back before tiring late.
The Jack Trengove trained Apparently closed late but Footrot Fan was able to hang on winning by a half a length in 31.37.
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Richards pair claim the middle-distance double.
There were two 595m races over the middle distance on Thursday night and both races were claimed by the Tim Richards team.
The first race was the Grade 5 over the 595m journey and featured an interesting mix of chasers stepping up to the 595m or dropping back from the 730m trip.
The race was taken out by Oh Louise who was away well from box seven and was able to work around the field and have an advantage down the back straight.
While Oh Louise went wide in the final straight, the fast-finishing Max Rocha and Could Be King couldn’t close the gap as Oh Louise won by a length and a half in 34.41.
The second winner was in the final race of the night, with Circus Craze winning the grade 6 595m race.
From box six, Circus Craze showed plenty of speed with an 8.80 first split and was able to get to the lead and with clear running she was never troubled winning in 34.99 by seven lengths.
It was career win number 11 from start number 70 for Circus Craze.
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Furner, Chevalier chasers cause upsets.
It was also an excellent night for a couple of smaller kennels, beginning with Ashley Furner and chaser Romantic Prince who took out the first race on the card which was the Pathway series final.
From box two, Romantic Prince was able to get a nice run through quickly working past early leader Bandit Hazel on the turn and holding an advantage throughout winning in 31.15 by two lengths.
The Adrian Chevalier trained Balonne Boy also sprung a surprise, winning a grade five over the 530m in a red-hot field which included several in-form chasers as well as distance star Zipping Neutron who returned to the track over the sprint distance.
From box six, Balonne Boy was able to follow early leader Manipulation into the race before powering home over the top to win by two and a half lengths in 30.91.
Manipulation finished in second while Zipping Neutron powered home as expected to finish in third position.