Punters who have called a ‘last hurrah’ on parenthood could be in for a ‘surprise baby’.
TAB is offering a ‘seducing’ – not ‘inducing’ – $12.00 ‘canine/equine’ cross-codes offer on Last Hurrah to win tonight’s Group 1 Hume Cup (600m) at The Meadows and Surprise Baby to place in the Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington tomorrow.
Trained at Little River by Brett Nye, Last Hurrah was the second-fastest qualifier (34.15sec) in last week’s heats – around one length slower than Zipping Zeek (34.10sec), who set the time standard.
Arguably the sport’s most versatile greyhound, Last Hurrah (Box 3) is chasing his seventh successive win and a $75,000 first prize. He’s snared 32 races from 69 starts, with stakes of $167,875, and won two from three over the middle distance at The Meadows.
Last Hurrah was also runner-up in the G2 McKenna Memorial (595m) at Sandown Park and a finalist in the G1 Australian Cup (525m) at The Meadows.
The Hume Cup also features powerhouse Christo Bale – Last Hurrah’s nemesis in the McKenna Memorial – and is Race 8 at 8.46pm.
Meanwhile, the Paul Preusker-trained Surprise Baby – to be ridden by champion hoop Craig Williams – is having his second tilt at the ‘race that stops a nation’. He finished fifth (beaten only 0.9L) to Vow And Declare last year.
Surprise Baby, who won last year’s G2 Adelaide Cup (3200m), has won five races from 13 starts and $998,735 in prizemoney. He will wear saddlecloth No. 13 and jump from barrier 7.
The Lexus Melbourne Cup, worth $4.4 million-to-the-winner, is Race 7 at 3.00pm on Tuesday.
