Victorian-trained My Redeemer and Beast Unleashed towered over their rivals in Saturday night's semi-finals of the Group 1 Ladbrokes Peter Mosman Classic and will dominate betting on this Saturday's $75,000 to the winner Wentworth Park final.
My Redeemer easily ran down early leader Velocity Liberty to win the first semi-final in 29.64, far and away his personal best Wentworth Park time, while Beast Unleashed led throughout to win the second qualifying race in 29.82.
While Beast Unleashed's time was .18sec slower than My Redeemer's, the box draw for the final is likely to see him sent out favourite.
Beast Unleashed drew box three while My Redeemer has five.
"I am happy with his draw, he is nicely positioned,'' Best Unleashed's trainer Jodie Lagogiane said later.
But David Geall, trainer of My Redeemer, commented: "Problem with box five for my dog is that he is drawn alongside Chief's Empire, who has box six.
"Chief's Empire has good early speed and I did not want to be drawn next to him, especially inside him because he could crowd My Redeemer in the early stages.''
Queensland Derby winner Two Times Twice, a wide runner who usually gets back in the early stages of his races, came up with box one.
"Naturally we would have preferred an outside draw but box one is better than being in the middle,'' Two Times Twice's part-owner Dennis Donoghue said.
"When he finished third in his semi-final tonight, from box six, he actually stepped left when the boxes opened, the first time he has ever done that.''
Velocity Liberty led early when a distant second to My Redeemer, clocking early splits of 5.45 and 13.96.
Her trainer Robyn Goodwin is satisfied with her greyhound's box two draw.
Beast Unleashed exited box two in his semi win, posting splits of 5.41 and 13.83, defeating Chief's Empire by just over a length after being chased by that greyhound all the way.
Zipping Falcon, who finished third from box four in that race, is a keen railer who is poorly boxed in eight in the final.
Box draw is 1 Two Times Twice 2 Velocity Liberty 3 Beast Unleashed 4 Winlock Huddy 5 My Redeemer 6 Chief's Empire 7 Nangar Kash 8 Zipping Falcon with reserves Blue Moon Rising and Rev Fred Sloy.
Saturday night's training honours were with Hank Vanderburg, who won with warm favourites Hot Platter and Miss Splendamiro, and with Vic Sultana, successful with Knock Wave and Sky Wave.
Miss Splendamiro will now head to Brisbane for the heats of the Winter Carnival Cup over 520m at Albion Park on June 28.
“Hot Platter will have a few weeks off before being stepped up in distance because she does not have enough early pace to reach the top as a sprinter,'' Vanderburg said.
“Box one won the 520m race for her tonight, she could not have won from any other draw.''
See you next week!
