Team Dailly are the only training combination to win the Bold Trease and Melbourne Cup double and on Friday night at Sandown Park, a runner in each of the Group 1 features means history could repeat itself.
Bourbski Fever and Dyna Double One were the two greyhounds who made the double dream a reality in 2015. This Friday night their hopes lie with Boom Down in the Bold Trease and Jaro Bale (pictured) in the Melbourne Cup.
Boom Down is the $3.30 TAB favourite after drawing box one and recording a best of the night 41.63sec run over the 715 metre distance in the heats.
Sitting alongside him in the market is two-time Group 1 winner Blue Moon Rising who has drawn box three.
Boom Down and Blue Moon Rising have met each other four times at group level, three of which went the way of Blue Moon Rising but Dailly said Boom Down’s Group 3 Sydney Cup win in October was worth noting.
“Boom Down ran down Blue Moon Rising in the Sydney Cup so he can do it,” Andrea Dailly said.
“He is like a steam train, slow out but always powers home.”
With the box draw not really being an issue for Boom Down there is one factor no one can discount – champion Tornado Tears.
In what was a thrilling finish in the opening Bold Trease heat with just 0.03 lengths separating the three placegetters, Tornado Tears snuck through to make it into his 12th Group 1 final.
Tornado Tears has drawn box four and has opened up $6. Barring a late flurry of money this will be the first time in 40 starts that he will not run the favourite dating back to April 2018.
While TAB has confidence Boom Down can win his first Group 1 in the $145,000 Bold Trease, the odds are a bit longer for Jaro Bale in the Melbourne Cup, who drew box six and is the ranked outsider at $34.
“Box six has done him no favours, there are good dogs in every box, and it will be hard going,” Dailly said.
“Hopefully he can step cleanly and get into the race in the early stages.”
