Burn Along by name… Burn along by nature. Talk about living up to your racing moniker!
That’s the amazing scenario of a highballing Hoddles Creek sprinter which lines up for his litmus test in the $83,000 Group 2 Sportsbet Warragul Cup final (460m) – Race 8, 9.27pm – on Friday night.
Trained by Paul Jones – a consultant arborist – Burn Along is a talented tyro which doesn’t turn two years old until next month and has only 18 runs under his belt. Further, he only started racing five months ago, having his first start in early September last year.
Regardless – sent out at juicy odds of $22.20 – he cut down his ‘tallest poppy’ to date, defeating G1 Topgun winner Transponder ($1.90F) in a Warragul Cup heat. What’s more, he clocked 25.61 – fourth fastest of the seven heat winners – albeit just over three lengths off the quickest set by Nature Strip (25.41sec).
Burn Along – aka “Angus” – was bought as a three-month-old pup for $4500 by the ‘Remembering Red’ syndicate. He was bred by greyhound media guru, James Van de Maat.
“But we know, when he leads, he’s always a chance no matter who he meets.”
Emotions will be running high among the syndicate if Burn Along ‘ignites’ to a $55,000 first prize.
One of the part-owners, Paul Kircher, lost his wife Leanne to breast cancer a few years ago. Her nickname was “Red” – hence the syndicate name.
Other members of the syndicate are Jones, his partner Maria Barber, Jones’ son Jackson and his mates Shaun Andueza, Tom Kelly and Troy Murphy.
A former Healesville GRC president, Jones met Van de Maat when both were on the HGRC committee.
“He started practice calling as a 15-year-old at Healesville. That’s where he ‘cut his teeth’ in race calling,” Jones said.
Jones says Burn Along (Feb ’22 Bernardo x Van Evie) was a “superstar from the start”.
“He was broken-in at approximately 13 months of age and we were told, “this boy is city class”.
“He’s just a mad chaser… He’s the quickest early we’ve had, and potentially the best we’ve been associated with in almost 20 years of involvement in the sport.”
Burn Along has won 10 races (with one second and two thirds) from 18 starts and $31,165 in prizemoney. He snared six of his first seven starts.
“We’d been trialling him at Healesville and we knew what he could do,” Jones said. We’ve been working on his stamina, slowly building him up. He’s getting stronger as he matures.”
Jones concedes, “we thought we might run second (to Transponder) in his heat”.
“But we know, when he leads, he’s always a chance no matter who he meets.
“He also has a lot of track sense. He’ll go straight and wait for an opportunity to cross. Box eight is exactly what we wanted.”
Indeed, Burn Along – which has won four of his past seven – has notched two wins and one second from three starts exiting the ‘pink’ alley.
Burn Along is a $23 rank outsider in the final. But Jones was too polite to say they are ridiculous odds, opting for a much more conservative approach.
“I reckon the odds are based on the trainers rather than the dogs. But it should be remembered that he was only three lengths off the fastest heat winner.”
WATCH: “Burn Along, it has burned along…” Young gun BURN ALONG (B4) upsets big gun TRANSPONDER (B1) in a Warragul Cup heat.
