Group racing continues tonight, in Queensland at Albion Park, with the running of five heats of the Group One Brisbane Cup over the 520-metre trip. The five heat winners, plus the three fastest second place getters, will progress to the final next Thursday where the winner will receive a whopping $250,000. The number of entries for the series was down on expectations, but this can clearly be attributed to the travel restrictions imposed at many of the state borders. Quantity may be down but the quality of the five heats remains outstanding, making the task of selecting winners extremely difficult.
Supporting the heats of the Brisbane Cup will be three heats of the Group One Queensland Cup for the staying greyhounds over the 710-metre trip, and again we have excellent depth in the heats. What a night of racing this promises to be at Albion Park.
Heats of the McKenna Memorial, over the 595 metres, will also be run tonight, down in Victoria at Sandown Park, this event being a Group Three event. The two in-form middle distance dogs in the country, both from the powerful Mark Delbridge kennel in Zipping Rambo and Christo Bale, hold the key to the series. Both will go around at a short price tonight, and both are expected to win, thus setting up a classic meeting in the final next Thursday. Things are really heating up in the greyhound racing industry and the quality of dogs going around in these two series tonight, is not only a reflection on how well the greyhound industry is travelling at the moment but a real reflection on how strong our trainers in this country are as they continue to produce animals they are of the highest quality in the world.
Albion Park Race 2 No 7 Micks Recall $3.00 at PlayUp – Sensational run here last week in the Chairman’s Cup when finishing a close up second after finding early bother and then being caught wide the trip. From this draw we expect her to be handy to the lead at the post the first time, and then prove too strong from that point. For us, she is the best bet of the night and the banker for your multi bets.
Albion Park Race 3 No 2 Pump It $7.50 at PlayUp – She has been racing with no luck at all in recent times but she can make her own luck tonight by jumping to the front and leading all the way in this event. There appears to be not a lot of pace on either side of her, and she does enjoy an inside box. Each-way value.
Albion Park Race 6 No 6 Extra Malt $8.00 at PlayUp – Another greyhound who has been experiencing very little luck in her recent starts. She is a track specialist and we are banking on her local knowledge to get the job done. We are thinking that the 1 and 2 dogs will cut at each other upfront, and allow our selection to finish over the top of them in the home straight. Excellent each-way value.
Sandown Park Race 2 No 8 Weblec Storm $3.50 at PlayUp – Drawn to perfection in this box as he simply races at his best when outside of dogs. This is a drop-in class to what he has been racing against and we can see him leading all the way in this event.
Sandown Park Race 9 No 2 Plan Ahead $5.00 at PlayUp – Ideally drawn to get the run of the race. We can expect the red to lead clearly into the first turn, thus providing a path for Plan Ahead to settle behind her on the run. We believe our selection will be stronger in the last fifty metres and finish over the top to win. Again, nice each-way odds.
