Smith Team Set To Go For Brian Johnstone Semis
Smith Team Set To Go For Brian Johnstone Semis
Week two of the Brian Johnstone series will roll around on Thursday night, with two Semi-Finals of the lucrative Group 3 series set to be staged.
Four heats were run last week and we saw some strong performances across them. The winners of the heats were Zinfandel Pardy (31.09), Zinfandel Trace (30.54), Mallee Beauty (30.72) and National Grid (31.10).
In what is a credit to the strength of the Damien Smith kennel, the Murray Bridge based trainer has qualified four runners into the Semi-Finals, all of which will have genuine chances of making the final.
All four of Smith’s runners come out of the Aston Dee Bee x Rosie Red litter which was whelped in November 22’, with the litter already having won 41 races between them and $87,000 in prize money. Clearly a very talented group of chasers who will be looking to give Smith his first Group race success. Smith has given his thoughts on all four of their chances in the Semi-Finals, following their heat runs last week.
Jabuk - Race 5, Heat 1, Box 2
“He went pretty good, he was alway going to be underdone. Hypothetically he is better for this run but we will see.” said Smith
“He had a little wrist (issue). I trialled him one morning at Angle Park and he hit the rails, he’s just a real hard railer. Sometimes when they get the lure too far in front they misjudge the corner and he just whacked it. He just gives you every cent that dog, too bad he’s not four lengths stronger but that’s what it is.”
“He’s probably best boxed for mine, but who knows, it’s a tough gig but if you’re in front then who knows.”
Mallee Beauty - Race 5, Heat 1, Box 6
“She was pretty good (last week), but you will see a different dog if she can just hit that jump. She’s back and forwards in the box, that’s a little habit that hopefully she gets out of.”
“You can’t go past Apilla (when asked who’s the best in the litter), but she’s probably the best sprinter. She will probably turn out the better one. If she can get that jump every week, she has the most speed by far.”
“(Box six is) pretty good, I think she likes it out there, it’s just what they do around her basically.”
Apilla - Race 6, Heat 2, Box 4
“She was a little bit unlucky (in her heat), she probably should have won that if she didn’t get that little check going into the catching pen, but she is what she is, she’s slow out and she needs to go past every other dog, so that’s life unfortunately. She does her best work at the end.”
“If she had one of the other one’s box manners then you would have a champion wouldn’t you!”
“Most of the time she’s got to go through most of the field. I think the one (Dakota Rylen) gets off a little bit.”
“The only thing I didn’t like was (Zinfandel) Trace sitting inside of her (Apilla), that’s not that quick early either so she will have to get around her somehow.”
Mundulla Race 6, Heat 2, Box 6
“(Heat run) was pretty good. But she’s probably just making up the numbers.”
“It was a good run last week, but she always looks so green, it’s pretty tough for her but we will see.”
“She can run but she needs it all her own way.”
And when asked who he would most like to see in the final, Smith offered the following…
“We want Apilla and Mallee Beauty. I think all in all, (Mallee) Beauty is boxed where she wants to be, just if she gets left alone early and makes the jump then she’s the one.”
Racing on a strong card will kick off at 6:37pm