Lara trainer Brendan Pursell and well-travelled sprinter McInerney will be striving to become Victoria’s first Million Dollar Chase winners at Wentworth Park next Saturday night (September 24).

McInerney, which ran third in the Group 1 National Sprint Championship in Sydney last month, when representing Tasmania, was victorious in the last of eight ‘must win’ MDC semi-finals held on Friday night.

The superbly-related son of Fernando Bale and G1 winner Born Ali, bred and raced by Victorian Noel Mugavin, was making his third straight appearance at Wentworth Park, after running second in an MDC City Qualifier one week earlier.

Drawn in Box 2, McInerney started $2.80 favourite and after settling in third place, he swept to the front in the back straight and sprinted clear, defeating Embrace by 3 lengths in 29.68sec, the 21st win of a 52-start career spent alternating between the mainland and Tasmania.

“He’s just got electrifying speed,” Pursell told The Dogs’ Mick Cowley.

“If he can just get himself up there, even though he gets out wide he runs two to their one.

“He’s very quick and he’s getting stronger. It’s a shame he’s got this pattern of wanting to get out wide. If he didn’t do that he’d just be a super dog.

“He’d been racing real good in Tasmania and we brought him back and he ran a couple of quick times at The Meadows and we could see him getting stronger and I said to my son (Blake), he was training him in Tasmania, to leave him here, we’ve got these Group races coming up and he’s good enough to be in them, so we’ll give them a go!”

While Pursell indicated he would have preferred a wide draw, McInerney, the only interstate finalist, has drawn Box 1 for the second MDC final for 2022, and is rated a $6.50 chance to claim the winner’s $1 million bonanza.

Of the other Victorians engaged in the semi-finals, Plaintiff (Jason Thompson) and Zara’s Ivan (Tom Dailly) both ran second and qualified for the MDC Consolation, worth $25,000 to-the-winner, where they have drawn boxes one and four, respectively.

Who Told Shorty, also trained by Pursell, and Zippy Tesla (Andrea Dailly) finished third in their respective semis.

Three heats of the G2 Sydney Cup were also held, with Gypsy Wyong (Andrea Dailly) and Ariarne Bale (Daniel Gibbons) advancing to the $100,000 to-the-winner final after minor placings.