Lakeview Emily claimed time honours in the CHK Painting Shepparton Cup heats after being challenged early by Sweet Valentine and Zipping Gryllis, lowing her personal best time over the 450 metre trip to 24.89 seconds.
Zipping Gryllis held a great position from box two throughout to finish second and recorded the second fastest qualifying time of 24.95 seconds.
Bendigo Cup winner Boracay Storm won his way into the Shepparton Cup with ease, leading the field easily with a slick 6.43 second first split. He held off a fast-finishing Fernando Phil.
NSW raider Slick Badger overcame a check to run on and win the second heat of the Shepparton Cup. Slick Badger finished second in the Shepparton Classic at the start of the month after qualifying for the $14,000 feature by finishing fourth. But it was his 24.76 second (BON) victory last start at Shepparton that got punters attention. Will win number ten be his first group race victory?
Serial Sticker was gallant in defeat, finishing second after getting into a nice position heading into the home straight. Pre-race favourite, Tim Zoo missed the start and wasn’t able to work his way into the field and didn’t qualifier for the Cup.
Team Gibbon’s dominated heat four of the Shepparton Cup with outsider Description coming out on top over kennel mate Leo Bale. Horsham Cup winner Flying Zulu was the punters fancy but was held wide and shuffled back towards the tail of the field and wasn’t able to qualify.
From Shepparton Classic into the Shepparton Cup went Kraken Whisky for Mark Morrissey in the fifth and final heat. Kraken Whisky shot past a returning Matt Loch to take control in the early stages, winning the final heat in 25.093 seconds.
