He may not be a household name but Queensland trainer, Greg Stella, is a trainer that punters should follow very closely. Thursday evening at Albion Park, Stella trained the winner of the Masters Series Final, Security Code, who won comfortably to make it two wins from his two starts since joining the Stella kennels. The $18,000 winners cheque is outstanding money for the masters grade. We have done a check of the records, and that win was the 286th winner to come from the Stella kennels in the last ten years. Nothing special about that you may think. But when you consider that the Stella has only had 765 starters over that period, giving him a win strike rate of 37%, you start to take notice. Add a further 228 placings, the result being that 67% of his runners over a ten year period, have finished in the top three. That is an amazing statistic, and confirms our belief that he is one of the best trainers in the country. We suggest punters, punters keep a close eye on his runners in the future, we do.
Tonight at The Meadows we will see a fantastic night of greyhound racing with the headline act being the final of the Group One Maturity Classic. Despite a number of the more fancied runners being eliminated last week in the heats, the final field is still of a very high quality and with great depth. Finding the winner is no easy task. In addition to the Maturity final, we also have the final of the Fireball over the 725 metres, a Group Three event, plus what is possibly the strongest Free For All ever assembled at the track. A wonderful nights racing awaits as we also have the final of the Young Guns at Ipswich, and what a top line field we have there, Dapto are hosting a city meeting due to the closure of Wentworth Park in these Covid times, plus strong racing at Cannington, Geelong and Dubbo. Sensational.
Meadows Race 6 No 7 Five Star $3.80 at PlayUp – Form dropped away during his recent trip to Queensland, and despite only finishing fourth in his heat last week it was a nice run. Back home with astute trainer Paul Abela now, we are sure the real Five Star will front tonight. The real Five Star is the best dog in this field. The each way odds are amazing really, they appear overs.
Meadows Race 7 No 3 Aston Rupee $2.70 at PlayUp – For us he remains the best dog in the country. He still needs to prove this and a victory in this field would be a good start in showing it. We think the draw suits him and we can see him sitting right on Koblenz into the back and then proving too strong. Keep following this dog in all the major events.
Meadows Race 8 No 8 Aston Fastnet $3.60 at PlayUp – Outstanding form in recent months including a super heat win here last week. Yes he prefers the inside, but the dog drawn inside him tonight does crash to the rails and we believe this will make the race for our selection. He is very strong in the run to the line. Yes. We rate him our best of the night and the banker for your multi bets.
Dapto Race 3 No 1 Zipping Nebraska $4.40 at PlayUp – Very strong stayer who will be ideally suited by this 729 metre distance event. Found the line very well two starts back for her strong win at Wentworth Park over the 720 metre trip in similar field, before finishing hard for a placing at Richmond over 618 metres. Well boxed also.
Cannington Race 8 No 1 Historic Time $5.50 at PlayUp – A three time winner this track and distance, plus a good record from inside draws, leads us to believe this dog can salute tonight at nice each way odds. Generally a good beginner, assisted by a wide runner drawn in box two, we can see him leading all the way. Each way all day.
