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  • Friday, 17 Jul, 2015,
  • by Matt Jackson

North-East Wrap: Feature racing at Bendigo, Healesville

Welcome along to this week’s edition of the North-East Weekly Wrap. Apologies for last week – due to unforseen circumstances there was no wrap.

The past fortnight certainly was highlighted by the devastatingly brilliant win of the incomparable Fernando Bale in the Bendigo Cup. Making it 15 wins on the bounce he didn’t quite lower his track record run of his heat win but it was still a special victory and something the big crowd at Lords Raceway felt blessed to have witnessed. He may end up being the greatest of all time. He beat Shared Equity who ran the race of her life chasing the champ and 3rd in was the rank outsider Breathing Fire. Just soak up what this dog is doing for the sport of greyhound racing. Here is the brilliant Fernando Bale winning the Bendigo Cup (Replay).

Other winners on a terrific Cup Night program were the Mark Delbridge trained Argenta (pictured – box 8) in the GRV Vic Breeders Maiden Final, where she beat Crave and Dr. Shiki. She is very fast and can go on and keep winning. In the Ready to Race Mid-Year Final it was To The Galo’s who was able to continue on his dream run. Purchased for $6,000 at last year’s Ready 2 Race Auction, his win took his prizemoney to in excess of $28,000. You would like to think he can add to that over the next 6 months too. In the staying Photography Cup it was the Brooke Ennis trained Esparza who was able to outstay her rivals to win impressively. Owned by leading Harness Racing driver Greg Sugars, she has now won five of 20 and over $21,000 in prize money. She scored well defeating Alexis Kelton and Magic Earner.

 

In the past couple of weeks at Shepparton we have seen a number of highly impressive winners who will go on and win much better races.

The first of them is Blazin Bomber. Unbeaten in five starts, he looks something special. His win when having little luck at Shepp last week shows how much ability he has and he looks as if he is crying out for 500m and longer too (Replay). Darren Pattinson, who trains the son of Kinloch Brae would be pretty excited by the future with this guy and also the future of Unlawful Entry, who broke his maiden in very impressive style on Monday Night. He bombed the start but was still way, way, way too good and absolutely bolted in, scoring in fast time by 10 lengths.

On the same program as Blazin Bomber we saw Spring Missile run outstanding time over the short course in a heat of the Grade 5 series before coming out and repeating that effort with a comprehensive win in the final of that series. He is a short course specialist and will keep winning as he is a flying machine.

On Monday night just gone Jason Thompson might have unearthed his next star in Moreira. Named after superstar Brazilian jockey Joao Moreira, this guy might be very good. He ran outstanding time breaking his maiden and winning by a big space. He will keep winning races, make no mistake about that (Replay).

 

Over to Healesville and last week conducted were four heats of the Winter Cup. The first heat was taken out by the Mark Giddings trained We Froff Dat, who is developing a very good record. He has now won five of eight and although he was the slowest heat winner when he beat Immortal Panther and Sultan Of Swing (Replay), he will make his presence felt in the final.

On to heat two and Peregrin Stealth, who is starting to put together a very consistent record up the straight, was able to win his way through to the final with a strong win after overcoming some heavy bumping early. He beat a fast finishing Boo Shan and Dragon Empire (Replay).

Heat three was up next and it turned into a match race between Shirdon Connorae and Eddie Yap, with the latter prevailing. Both are indeed very fast and will be among the favourites in this Sunday’s final. Eddie Yap has won five of nine now and has only missed the place once. Shirdon Connorae will be fitter for the run and can turn the tables, while back in 3rd was Big Bad Fiji, who ran on well from a long way back (Replay).

The last heat run was won by He’s Panicken, who was the fastest heat winner on the day. Trained by Martin Cocknell, he was able to hold off a late closing Classy Sparks, who was a little unlucky. They beat the rest easily which were headed by Eli’s Jet (Replay).
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Healesville Winter Cup Formguide: Click Here

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That wraps up the North Eastern Wrap for this week. Please keep an eye out on Friday for a preview of the Winter Cup Final at Healesville on Sunday. Until next week Good Luck and Good Punting.
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[youtube youtubeurl=”3GQnWzPpTcM” ][/youtube]
Watch: Fans flock to Bendigo as ‘Fernando Fever’ takes over Lords Raceway.

Matt JacksonMatt Jackson

Matt Jackson

Matthew Jackson has 3 years experience Race Calling with RSN calling all 3 codes all across Victoria. I currently race a number of Thoroughbreds also but have a strong passion for Greyhound Racing. (The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of GRV)

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