Xile Bale Faces His Biggest Test Yet in SA
Xile Bale Faces His Biggest Test Yet in SA
Another strong night of racing awaits at Angle Park on Thursday night with a 12 race card assembled as the path to the Nationals continues which are being held in August.
Last week we saw a sensational edition of the Champion Puppy, where the highly promising Zinfandel Trace took victory thanks to a powerful finish burst, which continued the amazing run that local breeder and trainer Gavin Harris has enjoyed for a significant period of time.
This week the highlight of the night will be the fast class race of the night, with a quality six dog field assembled over the 530m distance. In a star studded field, the race will see Fantastic Spike look to repeat his effort from last week when he ran a flying 30.36. He is up against the likes of Where’s Poppy, Adhana Rico and Versatile. In amongst the mix will also be the Robyn Mackellar trained Xile Bale, who finally found some good luck last week and was able to show how good he is, running a red hot 30.41, a run which pleased Mackellar, along with the time he ran, which she didn’t expect from him.
“He’s a dog that definitely needs the rails, he just seems to find another leg if he can get the rail. He’s been doing good back sections anyway and his run homes are getting better. He’s a good box dog, but not a brilliant box dog, just with his sheer size.” said Mackellar
“The time did surprise me a little bit because he was just trialling around the 30.70 mark.”
Prior to arriving in South Australia, where he was purchased by Tim Aloisi and his syndicate, Xile Bale had run some fantastic races in Victoria, headlined by a 29.95 Meadows victory and a flying 28.67 Sale run. It was these performances which led to the son of Dyna Villa and Quail Bale making his move to the festival state.
“Just in conversation with Tim (Aloisi) really, you know what Tim’s like, he just likes buying some dogs and saw that he was up for sale.” said Mackellar
“He’s amazing (at home), he’s just the biggest gentle giant, he’s nearly 37kg.”
It will be the toughest task for Xile Bale since he has arrived in South Australia, when he lines up on in the Open grade race on Thursday, but with box two, he will be looking to get a clean run early and use his midrace speed to get into a stalking position.
“The poor little bugger has only just won a grade 5!” exclaimed Mackellar
“It’s very tough to go straight up into Free For All company, but he’s on the rail and his back sections are good enough. If he can find the rail then we will see what happens. It’s a very classy field.”
Following on from Thursday nights assignment, the plan is for Xile Bale to continue working through his grades around the tracks.
“He doesn’t qualify for that (The Nationals) unfortunately, so he will just do his grades.”
Other key races on the card include an excellent distance event, where the ‘Zipping’ brothers in Zipping Neutron and Zipping Whiskey look set to do battle. We also will see a Masters final over the 530m distance with a stack of winning chances and a small but select Juvenile event, where Dakota Ava and Zinfandel Trace look set for another cracking race, following their efforts in the Champion Puppy last week.
The card is set to start at 6:34pm.
Best Bets:
Dakota Ava (Race 3, Number 6)
Bookaloo (Race 5, Number 2)