Paxton Dutton eyeing off Straight Track Cup Success
This year’s final of the Weblec Ace & Mepunga Blazer Murray Bridge Straight Track Cup will see one of the strongest finals in the short four-year history of the event.
A red-hot field is ready to go on Tuesday afternoon at Murray Bridge with six fantastic heats run last week headlined by the marvel Aston Ziebell who was the quickest qualifier and will represent Dave Peckham in the final.
Whilst the heats were run in poor conditions, a real sparking light was the Nathan Goodenough-trained Paxton Dutton, who despite giving away experience to his rivals, was able to prove too tough and strong, running down the high quality He’s On Fire.
Paxton Dutton only had his first start up the straight track the week prior, when he ran an eye-catching best of the day over 300m, demolishing a grade 6 field in a flying 16.58.
That quick run down the straight track surprised his trainer Nathan Goodenough, given the dog had never been to Murray Bridge before.
“He’d never been there before, the only sort of straight work he had done was at Virginia, free galloping and stuff like that,” Goodenough said.
“I didn’t really know what to expect, but I know they have a good turn of speed out of the boxes, and I thought that would hold him in good stead, to put him in a winning position.
“He’s improving every start. I thought he’d go about 16.80 to be honest. I guess he had it all his way which probably helped him too.”
Following on from his brilliant 300m victory, Goodenough was convinced to throw him into the Cup series, with the hope that his inexperience wouldn’t prove detrimental.
His heat win from box three, was quite an effort, given it was Paxton Dutton’s first go over the 350m distance and when he was led by He’s On Fire early, there wouldn’t have been many people who would've thought that he could run him down.
Despite receiving a few bumps early, Paxton Dutton just barged his way to the lead a long way before home and was never getting caught in front.
“I thought that He’s On Fire would be hard to beat and that he would lead us up and to get close to him with a chance to run him down, and then he just overtook him, that was pretty impressive,” Goodenough said,
“It surprised me, I thought we were going to run second or third and for him to just move up and power away, was impressive, considering as well that we bought him as a sprinter. They said that 400m was the absolute max with him, so when he loomed up, I was thinking how many tickets has he got left.”
Going into the final Tuesday, it’s been a similar week for Paxton Dutton, with Goodenough sticking to what works best for the dog.
“It’s been quiet, just trying to keep things as normal as possible and save the run for the day,” he said.
“The first couple of days he’s pretty quiet, but when he’s a couple days out from race day he starts getting a bit toey and wants to go, which is normal, so I expect that in the next couple of days.”
It’s a tricky box draw for the final, with Paxton Dutton drawing box six, which Goodenough concedes isn’t ideal, but is optimistic that Paxton Dutton might get some luck in running.
“Ideally, I would have liked him to have the pink, but he’s boxed to get a reasonably clear run. I think boxes one, two, three, four are going to potentially interfere, because they have a lot of pace, which might give us a clear run,” he said.
“The eight is the worry, it’s going to get its own way out there. We just need to be in striking distance to let down and get a crack at it. Hopefully he gets a clear and safe run, that’s all we’re hoping for.”
Previous Winners
2020 - LAVISH PEDRO - R. STASIAK - 18.66
2021 - ASTON OLENNA - D. PECKHAM - 18.87
2022 - FANTASTIC VICTOR- O. CHEGIA - 18.86