Hurley trio target Grade 5 final success
Hurley Trio Teaming Up In Grade 5 Final
A massive night of racing awaits at Angle Park on Thursday with the 12-race program kicking off with six heats of the 2024 Group 3 Howard Ashton series.
An age restricted series for South Australian bred chasers, the three-week series will see the first four from each heat progress to three semi-finals next week leading towards the final on the 23rd of May.
This year’s series is very deep as evidenced by the quality in the six heats with Merindah City for Bosko Stamenkovic and Spontaneous for Nicole Price having won the two series preludes.
Other prominent chances in the series include Yoda Lady for Lauren Harris who has won her last three at Angle Park, speedster Zinfandel Evie who has won her last four starts while the strong Tania Foster ‘McLaren’ team will be led by the quickly improving Majestic McLaren.
Also on the card, we have a fantastic grade 5 feature race final with a strong field drawn for the male only event.
Two heats were held last week for the series with the Tony Hinrichsen trained Supreme Sword producing another excellent performance to win his heat in 30.69.
The other heat was taken out by the Kiah Hurley trained Chapel Road who continued his brilliant recent form winning his heat in 30.51 and will be one of three runners for Hurley alongside Rotten Ronnie and Got Rhythm in the final
Chapel Road has had a stellar run of form since returning from a lengthy break winning five of his six starts including the Group 3 Cadillac Racing Mount Gambier Cup with the only defeat a close second behind Adhana Rico in the Group 3 Murray Bridge Cup.
Last week he defeated his kennel mate in Rotten Ronnie who was first up for Hurley, with the race proving to be a bit messy as Chapel Road and Rotten Ronnie both collided with each other early before Chapel Road ran away for a fast victory, whilst Rotten Ronnie was eye-catching in second.
Trainer Kiah Hurley was very impressed with both chasers in the heat.
“I thought Rotten Ronnie did really well, because he hadn’t had a ‘500’ for a long time, he had only had a couple of box to boxes,” Hurley said.
“I was happy with the way (Rotten) Ronnie had run because he got the check on the first corner, I was stoked with both. When Ronnie jumped like he did, I thought Chapel (Road) might be in a bit of trouble.”
Got Rhythm lined up in the other heat and almost crossed from box eight, before getting dragged down from behind and losing many lengths. Despite that, he stuck on well and still ran a time of 31.01 himself, with Hurley hoping for a change of luck with box draws for him.
“Got Rhythm again hasn’t drawn a box, he got smashed going into the first turn and has got box eight, two weeks in a row,” Hurley said.
“You won’t see the best of him until he gets an inside draw. He’s a bit of a lazy worker so it makes it hard with him!”
With three on the final, Hurley is hoping that one of them can get the job done and she says they all have a chance, although she believes one of them might have a slight edge on the other two.
“They all trial around the same, there is nothing much between them. Chapel (Road) did trial 17.69 before he went into the Angle Park run, but they can all go 5.20s to the first peg,” Hurley said.
“I’d like to say Chapel (Road), but (Rotten) Ronnie is the smokey. If Got Rhythm had a different box he would be a chance, but he can jump in the 5.20s, then they might go at each other, I am hoping they all don’t jump too well!”
“I would like to see Chapel go again, he’s just in flying form. I would love to see Rotten Ronnie or Got Rhythm too. I will go with Rotten Ronnie, I do like his chances.”
Following the race on Thursday, the Hurley trio will set their eyes on the Broken Hill Cup which is just around the corner.
The first race is at 6:31pm tonight.
Best Bets:
Spontaneous (Race 2, Number 2)
Rotten Ronnie (Race 8, Number 6)