POINTS OF INTEREST
HISTORY BOOKS
The Topgun was first held in 1993, at Sandown Park, with the inaugural running incredibly resulting in a dead-heat between Golden Currency and Worth Backing. The second Topgun was run at Olympic Park, after which the race alternated between Sandown and The Meadows on an annual basis, before moving permanently to The Meadows in 2007.
RACE OF CHAMPIONS
The Topgun honour roll is littered with champions, including Rapid Journey (1998), Bombastic Shiraz (2003), Whisky Assassin (2004), Cindeen Shelby (2009), El Grand Senor (2010), Fernando Bale (2015), Up Hill Jill (2017) and Aston Rupee (2021).
VICTORIAN DOMINATION
Victorian sprinters have dominated the Topgun Sprint since its inception, winning 21 of the 29 held, including the last seven in succession. New South Wales has produced four winners, Western Australia two and Queensland and Tasmania once apiece. South Australia is the only state yet to have a Topgun winner.
MILLIONAIRES ROW
Two Topgun runners, Wow She’s Fast ($1,176,370) and McInerney ($1,122,270), have banked more than $1 million in prizemoney, and the $150,000 winner’s purse would bring both within touching distance of Australia’s newly-crowned record stakes winner She’s A Pearl ($1,367,970), which passed Fanta Bale’s previous benchmark on Wednesday night.
Two trainers engaged in the Topgun have won the Million Dollar Chase, the world’s richest race; Brendan Pursell, who in September became the first Victorian trainer to win the MDC, courtesy of McInerney, while New South Wales trainer Peter Lagogiane has won the MDC twice.
GOLDEN GIRLS
While female greyhounds are numerically outnumbered in the Topgun Sprint, the only two members of the fairer sex, Wow She’s Fast and French Martini, dominate betting.
It’s a similar story in the Topgun Stayers, where female trio, Super Estrella, Mepunga Ruby, and Untapped sit atop Sportsbet’s market.
MULTIPLE WINS?
Kel Greenough, co-trainer of favourite Wow She’s Fast, with wife Jackie, is the only trainer to have won the Topgun previously, having been victorious with Cindeen Shelby in 2009.
