If you were searching for a fitting monicker for ‘explosive’ short-course speedster Action Girl, an apt sobriquet would be “Cape Clear Cannonball”.
Prepared by Gary Peach, Action Girl – a younger half-sister of 2019 G2 Bendigo Cup winner Crimson Vixen – has won 21 races from 33 starts (an impressive 64% win ratio) including seven of her past 10.
She was a finalist in last month’s G2 Healesville Cup, finishing fourth to NSW speed sensation Sacred Stance.
Ironically, Action Girl (Box 3) lines up in the $14,960 Cannonball Sprint final (400m) – Race 9, 9.42pm – at Geelong on Friday night.
Last week, Action Girl was the second-fastest (22.30sec) of three heat winners. Undefeated from three starts over 400m at Geelong, she’s assessed at $3.60 along with Aston Salma (Box 1), behind Kepal (Box 2) at $3.50, by expert form analyst The Watchdog.
“She likes to rail, so box three will suit her,” Peach said. “But if Matt’s Hope jumps, he’s the one to beat.
“However, when challenged, she finds a bit extra… She’s just a terrific chaser and has a great will to win.
“And she’s got a great record at most of the provincial tracks at which she’s competed.”
An earbrander for the Ballarat region, Peach added the ‘big smoke’ was on the horizon for Action Girl.
“The intention is to give her a crack at The Meadows. The only problem would be the ‘500’, but I’m confident she’d get the extra distance.”
But there’s an abundance of ‘gunpowder’ also chasing the $10,000 first prize.
Aston Salma and Kepal are both loaded with ‘ammunition’.
Trained by Tanya Sincock, Aston Salma – a winner of nine from 27 – clocked a flying 22.36sec heat win. She’s a younger half-sister of retired superstar Aston Rupee.
Healesville 300m track record holder Kepal (16.21sec) – a winner of 24 from 42 – finished second (beaten 3L) to Action Girl. Prepared by John Barbara, he was third in the Listed Pink Diamond Short Course (Ballarat) and a finalist in The Arrow (Healesville).
However, the Michelle Mallia–trained Matt’s Hope (Box 6) set the time standard with a blistering 22.24sec heat victory. The Shepparton Classic winner has started on 47 occasions for 19 wins and is rated an $8 chance by The Watchdog.
Pawnote: Meanwhile, two high-octane heats of the Geelong Derby (460m) and Geelong Oaks (460m) will be decided on the program.
Major players in the Derby series are Dusty Bourbski, Deadly Class, Quinlan Bale and Salad Dodger, while the Oaks series features Kanji Victory, Ailee Bale, Honestly Two, Widdicombe Bale and Ava Blazer.
WATCH: ‘Action’ speaks louder than words… ACTION GIRL (B6) was a comfortable Cannonball heat winner over KEPAL (B3).
