Little River trainer Brett Nye, 28, has a couple of ‘aces in the pack’ in the ‘Kings of Healesville’ and ‘Queens of Healesville’ 350-metre finals on Sunday.

And he has ‘laid his cards on the table’ regarding the chances of Last Hurrah and Rothwell Gal in the respective $2,100-to-the-winner events.

“He (Last Hurrah) hasn’t been beginning well,” said Nye, pictured above with Last Hurrah. “He blew the start in last week’s heat, but once he got going he was impressive… I’m expecting improvement from him.”

Expert form analyst The Watchdog has assessed Last Hurrah as a $6.00 chance, which prompted Nye to quip: “I’ll be having a piece of it.”

Last Hurrah (Box 2) “finished like a train” (listen to the video) to claim his ‘Kings’ heat in 19.45sec. And he’s drawn the ‘check’ alley in the final. In fact, he’s four from four from this draw.

Owned by John Maple, Last Hurrah has won 14 races from 38 starts and has a touch of class. He reached the semi-finals of the Million Dollar Chase and was a finalist in the G2 Geelong Gold Cup and G3 Sir John Dillon Memorial.
And Nye wished to express his gratitude to Maple for entrusting him with the training duties of Last Hurrah.

The fastest heat winner in the ‘Kings’ division was the Jessica Hopkins-trained Eye Catcher (19.39sec), who is quoted at $3.40 by The Watchdog.

Meanwhile, Rothwell Gal (Box 3) – a winner of eight races from 20 starts – ran her rivals ragged in a ‘Queens’ heat.

“It was her first run for nearly 14 weeks after injuring a stopper bone,” Nye said. “We trialled her at Healesville on the Wednesday prior and she went well… So, we thought we’d put her in the heats and it paid dividends.”

The Watchdog has assessed Rothwell Gal (Box 5) as a $3.40 chance ahead of the Keith Hellmuth-trained Sparkle Motion (Box 6) at $3.60, who was the fastest heat winner (19.42sec).

“Rothwell Gal is very fast, but I would have preferred to draw out wide,” Nye said. “Sparkle Motion is a bit quicker out, and I think she’s the one to beat.”

Nye added that last week was “my first winning double ever and my first win for 2020”. “I’d love to make it four wins for 2020 on Sunday,” he said.

It should be noted that Devon Meadows trainer David Condon is also chasing a ‘Kings’ and ‘Queens’ double with Superior Bont ($7.50) and Aston Meilleur ($6.00) respectively.

The ‘Queens of Healesville’ final is Race 6 on the program and is scheduled to start at 12.28pm, while the ‘Kings of Healesville’ final is Race 8 and timed to commence at 1.11pm.

Pawnote: The ‘Top 4’ in the ‘Kings’ final and the ‘Top 4’ in the ‘Queens’ final will clash in a $5,000-to-the-winner ‘Battle of the Sexes’ at Healesville on January 26.
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WATCH: Last Hurrah (2) finishes like a train to win his heat in 19.45sec.
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