My Khaleesi drawn for Brian Johnstone success
My Khaleesi Drawn To Perfection In Brian Johnstone
The stage is set for a massive Group 3 final this Thursday night at Angle Park with the running of the Brian Johnstone decider for 2023.
A cornerstone event on the racing calendar, the lucrative series which is age restricted to South Australian bred chasers, often brings together the state’s best youngsters.
Two semi-finals were run last week, with the first one going the way of the Bosko Stamenkovic-trained Footrot Fender who overcame a poor start to win comfortably 30.69, ahead of Buzz The Hustler.
In heat two, the Ben Rawlings trained My Khaleesi asserted herself as the one to beat in the final with an excellent 30.57 victory, showing both electric speed and strength at the end.
Stamenkovic and Rawlings will both have strong hands in the final after qualifying a pair of runners into the Group 3 final. Outside of the likely favourite in My Khaleesi, the race looks relatively open, with a few chances for it but with the aid of box one, the others will need to be on song if they are to topple My Khaleesi.
It’s been an excellent run of form for My Khaleesi, who has returned in brilliant fashion after a moderate start to her career. Since having a month spell in July, the Flying Ricciardo x Invictus Nina whelping has been simply terrific, having run three seconds in a row when returning before now winning four straight races after that. The time off was for no particular reason, but just a break after some bad luck that My Khaleesi had been finding in her races.
“We just thought that she wasn’t going like we thought she could and she kept drawing box eight and still does crash, so she kept running herself into trouble, so we thought we would get away and have a break,” Rawlings said.
It’s been a faultless series thus far, with My Khaleesi running fast times in both the heat and semi-final. An upset victory in the heat really took the eye of punters and the end time of 30.65 did come as a surprise to Rawlings.
“The first week did (surprise me), the week before I thought she was really good running that other dog down, she sort of had to push underneath it, the time was only a tick over ‘31’, but I thought she did it well,” Rawlings said.
“Last week was the first time she had been clean on the arm by herself, apart from solo trials when she was pre-training, so it was nice that she progressed like that.”
“Once she was drawn box three, I was praying she would draw decently so that she would give herself every chance to qualify. If she drew box eight, there's no guarantee that she would qualify. I was pleased that she jumped on the arm and improved again. She’s probably peaking at the right time.”
The box draw has clearly fallen the way of the hard railing My Khaleesi, with box one coming as real blessing. Rawlings will be hoping that she can repeat her last two efforts and find the front early. If she can do that, then she is going to be mighty hard to run down.
“It came down to box one or seven, so I am quite happy we got the ‘red’. It’s a good final, the three dog (Magical Mystic) and four dog (Buzz The Hustler) go good, but it looks like if she (My Khaleesi) brings her best beginning, she should lead and if she leads then she’s going to be very hard to beat,” Rawlings said.
With My Khaleesi being a homebred chaser for the Rawlings kennel, it would mean a lot for the family and connections if they are able to win the race and take home the $25,000 first prize.
Racing will start at 6:40pm on Thursday.
Best Bet: Osprey Diva (Race 11, Number 3)
Value Bet: Blossom Michelle (Race 9, Number 1)