SA hopefuls looking to launch to Sandown - Angle Park Preview
SA Launching Pad Heats
Two heats of the South Australian Launching Pad will take centre stage this Thursday night at Angle Park, with the series aimed at providing a South Australian hopeful, entry into the lucrative series held at Sandown Park in Melbourne.
It’s a series which always produces a good dog, with the last two winners of the South Australian series being Live It and Charlee’s Misty.
The event in Melbourne is open to greyhounds that have had 28 or less starts and no more than 6 wins, with the South Australian series limited to 26 starts and 4 wins, in the event that chasers win both the heat and final.
Both heats on Thursday look to have a bit of quality about them and will certainly be hard races to win.
Heat 1 will see the Ben Rawlings trained Peaky Boo start a raging hot favourite, following a couple of flying victories, before a luckless run in the St Leger last start. Whilst he looks well placed from the red box, their is some good opposition in the form of Shipway and the fast improving Allinga Zoe.
Heat 2 looks quite open with a few main hopes. Kirin Corby’s Senna Wick will be aiming to replicate her run which she produced in a heat of the SA Sprint Championship back in December, with a similar run to that likely to see her taking out the heat on Thursday. The fresh dog on the scene in Keep It Zipped has drawn well with box 1, whilst Transplant King for Jason Dolan will be hoping to overcome a tricky box 6 draw.
It’s been a positive start to the career of Transplant King, who has shown great strength and tenacity to chase throughout his first 16 starts (4 wins). He has already shown a real liking for inside draws and whilst Dolan has been pleased with the start he has made, he has lamented his slight lack of early speed in his races.
“It’s been a bit up and down (his career so far), he started out alright and then when he’s had to step up in a couple of harder races he’s just managed to find trouble on the first corner, not always fault his fault but often from him not being fast enough out.” said Dolan
Transplant King will go into the race on Thursday night fresh off a four week break, after enduring a luckless effort at his last start Angle Park, which followed a great second behind Maximum Smiles. Dolan says he had some soreness after the run and that was the reason for the short break.
“The other week he got cleaned up by Blue Intensity, so that set him back a bit as he needed a few weeks off because he was sore. After that run, he had the first two weeks off, just mainly walking and some beach work and then he’s just been working up the straight at my house. He’s had two trials since, the first trial was good, he went 31.05 and then last Sunday he only trialled 31.30, so that was a bit disheartening, but I did walk him earlier and he was a bit puffed, on top of that he was very excited.” Said Dolan
Whilst box six won’t be easy for Transplant King to handle, the benefit that the strong chaser has is that it's only a small field, which Dolan will be hoping he can utilise and find the rails early.
“Going into the heats on Thursday, I am just hoping he can scrape through in the first four and be better for the run. I just want to see him go 5.30-5.35 for the first split, he can go faster but I am hoping he can slot into second early. There's four dogs that can win the race, anyone of them can win it. They all have similar early speed. Him having a vacant box, hopefully Peace Belle can bring him into the race and then he can find the rail, once he finds the rail it’s a different story, I just don’t want him to be trapped in no man's land again!” said Dolan
Racing starts at 6:40pm local time.
Best Bets:
Exultant Mclaren (Race 2, Number 8)
Zipping Neutron (Race 9, Number 2)