Golden Maiden Success Awaits On Sunday Night
Golden Maiden Success Awaits On Sunday Night
Sunday evening at Gawler will see the running of the annual Gawler Golden Maiden Series Final, which is a highly sought after race each calendar year.
As is always the case with this series, it always throws up a very good dog with last year’s winner no exception, that being the highly talented Could Be King.
Four heats were staged last week with a breadth of well bred debutants stepping out onto a racetrack for the first time. With a cool $7000 to the winner on offer, it will be quite a healthy reward for the prevailing winner.
Last week's four heat winners were Zinfandel Austin (31.02), Keep It Zipped (31.06). Jimmy Dewalt (31.27) and Merindah Cool (31.80). It will be an even final with no real standouts and luck in running will certainly play a big role. Bosko Stamenkovic and Gavin Harris will both have two starters, whilst Ashlee Griffiths, Kevin Bewley, Nicole Price and Richard Pearce will all have one in the final.
It was an impressive debut effort from the Richard Pearce trained Keep It Zipped to take out his heat. From box two, he was slow to go but showed good field smarts to rail through on the first turn and find the front, before beating his field by 10 lengths.
Born in January 22’, the Zipping Garth x Mercedes Monelli black dog (Keep It Zipped), has taken a while to get to the track, with the rest of his littermate already winning multiple races, but it's potentially been a worthwhile wait if he is able to win the race on Sunday. Pearce ended up with Keep It Zipped in his kennel after going shares with him as a pup.
“The owner and I went and bought him as a pup off of Rob Harnas. I gave him to Matthew Payne and he reared him, then I took over the training of him.” said Pearce
After showing some promise, Keep It Zipped was struck down by a couple of injuries, which meant that Pearce had to give him some tough off in order to get over them.
“I got him going but then we had a couple problems. He did a fibula and then he strained a hock, so we bit the bullet and gave him a bit of time off.” said Pearce
Despite missing the start in his heat, Pearce was impressed with the way Keep It Zipped handled himself to take out the race.
“I was happy with his win, the only thing he did wrong was that he didn’t jump, he’s usually slick out of boxes. But, he was quick enough to pick them on the turn, I was happy with the run, he ran reasonable time.” said Pearce
“He’s a handy dog, he’s no world beater, but he will be a handy dog.”
It’s certainly going to be a tough task on Sunday, with box eight always proving difficult at Gawler, but Pearce is hoping that Keep It Zipped can show the early speed that he has shown during his pre-training.
“Well if he jumps alright then he should keep out of trouble around the first turn, but Gavin Harris’ dog (Springvale Grace) is quite slippery. Nicole Price’s dog (Dark Thrill) is not slow either, he’s pretty smart. Provided he (Keep It Zipped) keeps out of trouble then he should be in the placings anyway.” said Pearce
Away from the Gawler Golden Maiden on Sunday, the night will hold two heats of a 5/6 grade series over the 531m distance and a handy fast class event over the 400m trip.
Racing will start at 5:39pm local time.
Best Bets:
Run On Rusty (Race 6, Number 1)
Long Gully Angel (Race 12, Number 2)