The Shane McQueen Final Shaping up to be Fantastic
It is safe to say that the Murray Bridge track has been kind to Ossie Chegia and his kennel over the past few weeks with a string of wins and track records to his name.
In that time, Fantastic Shell broke the 530m track record when she set a new mark of 29.48 on May 24, while newcomer to his kennel, Fantastic Radley finished a gallant 2nd in the SA Distance Championship and also set a new track record for the 680m distance of 38.63s on June 10th. The track records and feature race appearances highlight the recent dominant period at the track for the kennel.
“We’ve only got 6 dogs at the moment so we’re really happy with how they’ve all been running at Murray bridge. The most important is their pulling up well and they love to race there.” Ossie Chegia explains.
The good times may continue to roll for Ossie as he lines up tonight with two chances in the Shane McQueen Final at the Bridge with Fantastic Pippa and Fantastic Shell jumping from box 3 and 5 respectively. However, both dogs face some strong competition from the likes of Jack’s Well (box 8) for Cameron Butcher and Zipping Sultan (box 1) for Ken Gill, who took out 1st and 2nd in the SA Anniversary Cup held at Gawler last month.
“There are great dogs in the Shane McQueen so it will be a tough ask for our two dogs. Shell ran the best heat time last week so she starts well she’s definitely a chance. Pippa ran half a length 2nd to Zipping Sultan last week so she’s around the mark but I think Zipping Sultan will be hard to beat from box 1.” Chegia continues regarding his chances tonight.
With Angle Park undergoing a track redevelopment, the feature race has been moved from the 600m at Angle Park to the 530m distance at Murray Bridge. With $6,000 on offer to the winner, it could be another happy drive back to Sellicks Beach for the Chegia camp!
As well as his strong current form, there is also some new dogs hitting the track later this year for team Chegia.
“We got a couple young ones coming through that aren’t quite ready yet but I am excited to see them in the next few months. Still got a bit of work to do with them. We buy our dogs from Jason Fletcher in NSW, we’ve had a relationship with him for 3 years. He’s given us some great dogs over the years and been good to us.”
The Shane McQueen final will be run at 9:12pm tonight
Photo Credit: Kurt Donsberg Photography