Oaks & Derby Heats kickstart Spring Carnival
Derby and Oaks Heats Take Centre Stage At Angle Park
The biggest period of racing on the Greyhound Racing South Australian calendar gets underway this Thursday night, with the heats of the South Australian Oaks and Derby being held.
A prestigious event on the calendar, it has attracted significant interstate interest this year with trainers from Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales all heading to Angle Park in the hope of taking out Group 3 glory.
Last year’s SA Oaks was taken out by the talented Where’s Poppy for local trainer Kirn Corby while the SA Derby was taken out by rising Victorian star Schillaci who catapulted himself onto the National stage winning the Derby and Match Race before winning the Phoenix in December.
The heats of the Oaks and Derby signify the beginning of the road to the Adelaide Cup which will be held on Friday October 11.
On the Oaks side, there looks to be strong competition between the local chasers and interstate brigade right across the three heats.
One local who will be looking to put in a strong showing is the Penny Sargent trained Kisses For Amy, who will be hoping her local knowledge and experience holds her in good stead for the heat. In recent times, Kisses For Amy has run consistently, collecting numerous placings.
“She’s been a bit unlucky. She got squashed in one of them (recent starts), she’s had three seconds in the last three races,” Penny Sargent said.
“I still think she has been a bit unlucky and had the wrong box draws.” said Sargent
Kisses For Amy will be the first runner that Sargent has had in the Oaks and it is an idea that came to mind just a few weeks ago, given that she has run good times at the track before.
“We’ve had it in mind for the last few weeks, she’s run 30.72.” said Sargent
In a heat that has a few chasers first up at the Angle Park circuit, Kisses For Amy has drawn another poor box with a middle box four draw to contend with. In her favour is a vacant box outside and Sargent will be hoping to see the daughter of Kisses For Chloe and Tommy Shelby burn to the lead early.
“I am not happy about the boxed draw,” Sargent lamented
“I she has a vacant box on one side of her because there are only seven dogs in the race, so that might help a bit.
“She had box seven last week and she got out well, but then she got squashed by number eight, then she went back to fourth but came home really well and ran second. So it was a really good run from her.
“If she gets out well then she has got early speed, it’s just that there are a lot of unknown dogs in that race so we don’t really know what they are like.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the Derby side of things, the local contingent will certainly have their work cut out, with a host of highly talented interstate chasers making their way over.
The Nicole Price trained Gouda Monelli will be looking to fly the flag proudly for the locals, with the son of Sunset Spitfire and Flake Monelli aiming to go slightly better than his first up performance last week.
After recording some impressive Mandurah victories and having run quick times there, he stepped out for his first run on a two-turn track and for the first time over 530m. He showed brilliant early speed to lead and ran a fast 17.50 back split, before getting a bit weary late and getting run down, although he still managed a quick 30.61 himself. That run impressed Price and she is confident that he will go even better on Thursday night.
“I thought the run was good, especially the 17.50 back split! Hopefully he can trim the run home time to something around the 12.80 mark. He will be better for the run.” said Price
Price is happy with how Gouda Monelli has pulled up since that run, which was his first run in six weeks and is confident that he is ready to go.
“He pulled up really well and he’s had a good prep this week actually. It’s been good because we’ve been able to get two slips into him this week.” said Price
In the last of the three Derby heats, Gouda Monelli will have a tough job ahead as he exits box four in a super hard heat. Price concedes that he must be at his best early and that he will need to lead if he is to have any chance of winning.
“He will need to lead to have any chance, I am just hoping he can make the top three. It’s a really strong race on paper.” said Price
Racing will start at 6:40pm local time.
The biggest period of racing on the Greyhound Racing South Australian calendar gets underway this Thursday night, with the heats of the South Australian Oaks and Derby being held.
A prestigious event on the calendar, it has attracted significant interstate interest this year with trainers from Western Australia, Victoria and New South Wales all heading to Angle Park in the hope of taking out Group 3 glory.
Last year’s SA Oaks was taken out by the talented Where’s Poppy for local trainer Kirn Corby while the SA Derby was taken out by rising Victorian star Schillaci who catapulted himself onto the National stage winning the Derby and Match Race before winning the Phoenix in December.
The heats of the Oaks and Derby signify the beginning of the road to the Adelaide Cup which will be held on Friday October 11.
On the Oaks side, there looks to be strong competition between the local chasers and interstate brigade right across the three heats.
One local who will be looking to put in a strong showing is the Penny Sargent trained Kisses For Amy, who will be hoping her local knowledge and experience holds her in good stead for the heat. In recent times, Kisses For Amy has run consistently, collecting numerous placings.
“She’s been a bit unlucky. She got squashed in one of them (recent starts), she’s had three seconds in the last three races,” Penny Sargent said.
“I still think she has been a bit unlucky and had the wrong box draws.” said Sargent
Kisses For Amy will be the first runner that Sargent has had in the Oaks and it is an idea that came to mind just a few weeks ago, given that she has run good times at the track before.
“We’ve had it in mind for the last few weeks, she’s run 30.72.” said Sargent
In a heat that has a few chasers first up at the Angle Park circuit, Kisses For Amy has drawn another poor box with a middle box four draw to contend with. In her favour is a vacant box outside and Sargent will be hoping to see the daughter of Kisses For Chloe and Tommy Shelby burn to the lead early.
“I am not happy about the boxed draw,” Sargent lamented
“I she has a vacant box on one side of her because there are only seven dogs in the race, so that might help a bit.
“She had box seven last week and she got out well, but then she got squashed by number eight, then she went back to fourth but came home really well and ran second. So it was a really good run from her.
“If she gets out well then she has got early speed, it’s just that there are a lot of unknown dogs in that race so we don’t really know what they are like.”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the Derby side of things, the local contingent will certainly have their work cut out, with a host of highly talented interstate chasers making their way over.
The Nicole Price trained Gouda Monelli will be looking to fly the flag proudly for the locals, with the son of Sunset Spitfire and Flake Monelli aiming to go slightly better than his first up performance last week.
After recording some impressive Mandurah victories and having run quick times there, he stepped out for his first run on a two-turn track and for the first time over 530m. He showed brilliant early speed to lead and ran a fast 17.50 back split, before getting a bit weary late and getting run down, although he still managed a quick 30.61 himself. That run impressed Price and she is confident that he will go even better on Thursday night.
“I thought the run was good, especially the 17.50 back split! Hopefully he can trim the run home time to something around the 12.80 mark. He will be better for the run.” said Price
Price is happy with how Gouda Monelli has pulled up since that run, which was his first run in six weeks and is confident that he is ready to go.
“He pulled up really well and he’s had a good prep this week actually. It’s been good because we’ve been able to get two slips into him this week.” said Price
In the last of the three Derby heats, Gouda Monelli will have a tough job ahead as he exits box four in a super hard heat. Price concedes that he must be at his best early and that he will need to lead if he is to have any chance of winning.
“He will need to lead to have any chance, I am just hoping he can make the top three. It’s a really strong race on paper.” said Price
Racing will start at 6:40pm local time.