The superlatives continued all night after Fernando Bale produced another flawless performance to post the fastest time in Saturday night’s four semi-finals of the Golden Easter Egg at Wentworth Park.
The National Derby winner completed a winning treble of Golden Easter Egg semis for Victorian trainer Andrea Dailly when he began brilliantly for an all-the-way win in a personal best Wentworth Park time of 29.34.
Fernando Bale (pictured) also recorded dazzling splits of 5.27, 13.47 and 17.56, with the two latter sets of figures being the quickest ever clocked at Wentworth Park.
Fernando Bale is sure to start favourite for Saturday’s final after drawing box eight, but Dailly’s husband Tom sounded a note of caution.
"On any other track I’d be happy with box eight but while he is better off there than being in the middle he will have to come out like a scalded cat to lead at the first turn," Tom said.
"Box eight is hard to win from at Wentworth Park, especially in Group 1 races."
Ironically it is Fernando Bale’s kennelmate Dyna Nico who could prevent the him from adopting his favourite role as pacemaker.
Dyna Nico ran the race of her life to score an upset semi win in 29.55 - 0.30 better than her previous best Wentworth Park figures. And she rocketed over the first three sections in 5.29, 13.58 and 17.72.
"Box five is not a bad draw for her," Tom said.
"She is a lid pinger and loves Wentworth Park. When she led easily tonight I was expecting her to get tired like she usually does but she kept going and went to the line strongly."
Team Dailly also won with Dyna Double One 29.55 but his move from box one in the semis to box four in the final makes his task formidable.
Undoubtedly the best boxed Golden Easter Egg finalist is Dawkins Bale, who has box one and has the luxury of having wide running Zipping Midge outside him in two.
"Box one is probably the only draw he could win this race from," Dawkins Bale’s handler Trevor Smith said on Saturday.
"He ran 29.60 getting beaten tonight and is improving all the time so is in with a great chance now."
Tragically Victoria’s Hostile, who won his Golden Easter Egg heat in equal fastest time of 29.45 and finished an unlucky second in Recruitment’s semi-final, suffered a serious hock injury a few metres past the finish line on Saturday and will miss the final.
While Victorian-trained greyhounds have secured six of the eight final berths and WA’s Over Limit has box three, NSW owners dominate.
Young’s Paul Wheeler owns a remarkable four of the eight finalists while Recruitment and Ronray Spirit are raced by NSW owners Shaun Evans and Irena Steele.
The box draw for the Group 1 Golden Easter Egg is: 1. Dawkins Bale 2. Zipping Midge 3. Over Limit 4. Dyna Double One 5. Dyna Nico 6. Recruitment 7. Ronray Spirit 8. Fernando Bale 9. Spacecraft 10. Zipping Abby
See you next week!
