SA Sprint Champion Ready To Be Crowned
The South Australian Sprint Championship will take centre stage on Thursday night at Angle Park, with the $15,000 to the winner series decider set to run at 8:56 pm local time. The heats were run last week with the winners being He’s Our Design (31.05), Malee Magic (30.67), Springvale Roxy (30.72).
The box draw has thrown the race up in the air, with no clear ‘winner’ out the draw. Local trainer Ben Rawlings, who is no stranger to winning a feature race, will be hoping that either of his two chargers in the form of Panorama and Came And Went, can make amends for their unlucky heat efforts. Panorama had been in terrific form going into the race last week and was nearly able to run down Springvale Roxy. Her draw looks awkward in box three with the wide running Mallee Magic drawn underneath her, but she may well play a key role for Came And Went to get into the race from box five, after he put up a determined effort in the heat to run second, despite travelling from NSW just days before the race.
“Came And Went’s heat run I thought was massive, not just because habitually of what it was, he stepped sweet and of course (Spring) Phoebe began with him and they came together, he kept his head in the game. Mallee (Magic) got the swoosh around, but he kept coming, he had only been back in the state not much more than 24 hours. To do that it was a pretty big effort I thought.” said Rawlings
“I thought Panorama was big as well, I didn’t know where she would land. She is just racing well. I thought for a minute that she might have been able to pick up Springvale Roxy, but she just had to do a bit of work. She’s just flying and is desperate for an inside draw and she’s got it!”
“They’ve both had good weeks, Came And Went has had a pretty cruisy week, he has had fresher week compared to Panorama because of how big his week was last week. Panorama has had her usual week, she got checked out and she’s really good. I think they are two really big chances on Thursday.”
“With the map, it’s a bit like the Ashes with the Design (He’s Our Design) dog in one and Mallee (Magic) in two. I think Panorama is the key to the race, she will begin, whether she goes straight to the front or she puts pressure on the inside two, the four has no pace so it is going to leave Came And Went with a heap of room. If he steps like he did last week then he will be going straight to the front and if he goes to the front, it will be all over.”
“The pace is only Panorama and those outside him (Came And Went), so that’s the only concern, whether Miss Scallywag pulls one out and Shanghai's out like she can and cuts him in half.”
“If I was betting on what is going to happen then it’s either Came And Went goes straight to the front, or Miss Scallywag is going to cut hard and set the race up for Springvale Roxy, who is absolutely flying.”
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The John Gray series for 2023 will also be on show Thursday, with six heats of the grade 5 series to be run. It is a race which is often won by a quality dog and last year’s edition went the way of the Clint Trengove trained It’s Smudgy, who will also be lining up again in the first heat of this year’s series, whilst in 2021 it was Zipping Sullivan who claimed the glory, whilst being trained by Tim Aloisi. This year’s race is quite strong at the top end, with the series favourites including Springvale Max, Harry, San Lorenzo, Springvale Rex and Spring Phoebe.
One dog who won’t go into the race with much fanfare is Dutch Impact, who will have his first start in South Australia, after joining the care of Colin Swain. The black dog will be first up for two months, after winning two of his last three starts in Victoria. Whilst he arrives in good form, he will have to be at his best after drawing the dreaded box eight and coming up against the airborne Harry, who has won his last four starts.
“A mate of mine in Melbourne originally owned him but he’s not well with illness, so the dog was sent to me.” said Swain
“He’s settled in reasonably well, I haven’t had him that long. He’s only been here just over a week.”
“He’s had one trial, he only went average. He hadn’t had a run for a while so he’s probably a bit underdone.”
“I think Harry is the one to beat, he’s good enough to beat it but we will just have to wait and see.”
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On a jam-packed night, we will also see a quality 730m race, with these distance races seemingly getting stronger each week lately. The race will feature Chair Man, who won the same race last week after finally putting it all together, Under Siege who is on the way up and My Mate Snow who has been much improved in his two starts. The Bosco Stemenkovic trained Powder Finger will be lining up in box one and will be hoping to continue his good form and defeat the competitive field.
After joining the care of Stamenkovic back in October, thanks to a connection with Powder Finger’s owner, he has been much improved, running out his races a lot stronger. Last week's run over the 730m trip was the first for Powder Finger since June and it was quite impressive, as he led the entire journey and ran a good 43.32. Whilst he will likely need to go quicker on Thursday, Stamenkovic is happy with how he came through the run and will no doubt be hoping he repeats his effort from last start.
“He’s not too bad, he pulled up quite good.” said Stamenkovic
“We were just happy with his run, we didn’t go into it with great expectation. We thought he would get a bit puffed over ‘700’ but we had no choice to go anywhere else, so we just thought we would put him in. He ran it better than I thought he would.”
“It’s an open field, full of chances. Whoever gets the breaks will win I suppose.”
Best Bet: Came And Went (Race 8, Number 5)
Value Bet: My Mate Snow (Race 9, Number 2)