One good turn deserves another, and David Smith was rewarded for his on Monday night at Nowra.
Last week, Smith, wanted to nominate his bitch Zippy Ethics for a fifth grade race at the South Coast track’s meeting. When told they were short of nominations for the regional heats of the GRNSW + Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase, he decided to help out and put his bitch into the series.
Zippy Ethics (pictured) roared away for a six and a half length win in 30.40s in her heat of the series and booked her place in next Monday’s Regional Final. A one-two finish there and she is off to Wentworth Park for the semi-finals of the series on October 12.
“They won’t have to ask if I’d like to come back next week,” Smith joked. “They could repay me by giving me the one box in the final.”
He got his wish when Zippy Ethics drew the rails later in the night.
“She’s good early and a good trier too. Her biggest problem is she has thrown a few races away because she hits the rail. She’d have a better record had she not cost herself a couple of races doing that.”
The win of Zippy Ethics could be the start of a very memorable week for Smith. He has two runners qualified for the Group 1 Dapto Megastar final on Thursday night – he is part-owner of the fastest qualifier Benkennie Chic, and he owns and trains Infrared Ethics, a litter brother to Zippy Ethics.
“Everything is temporary, so you have to take it while you can,” he said of his current run.
Most of Smith’s dogs carried the word ‘Ethics’ in their name.
“I had a saying when I was younger that if someone did something good I’d say – “yeah that’s Good Ethics”. My first dog I bought when I was 18 and I looked at it and I thought, that’s Good Ethics, so that’s what I called it.
“I like when people have dogs with the same word in the name like Bale or ZIPPING or Big Bad … you know who owns them.”
Some would say helping out when nominations were short is Good Ethics: “Yeah they would wouldn’t they,” joked Smith.
Smith said Benkennie Chic will contest the city qualifiers of the Million Dollar Chase after his Dapto assignment. He will wait and see how Infrared Ethics goes at Dapto before making a decision on where he goes.
Winsome Currency was second to Zippy Ethics and also qualifed for the final.
On paper and on form, the opening heat looked like a two dog race – the favourite Time Lord, a winner by 14 lengths at the track last start, and the flying Hear The Drums who had won his past seven and 10 of his past 11.
As expected Hear The Drums flew the lids and led, but was pressured by the speedy Zombie. Meanwhile back in the field Time Lord was finding trouble and struggling to get into the open and Chase the leaders.
Zombie kept Hear The Drums off the fence up the back and swinging for home an upset looked on the cards. The extent of the upset would soon be revealed however, when Brindle Bay charged along the fence to snatch a major upset of a win in 30.29s. Zombie held on for second, with Stilton Sox third and Hear The Drums fourth, missing next week’s final.
Th 40-1 winner clocked 30.29s with all three placegetters getting a start in next Monday’s final.
The final heat saw the most impressive performance of the night with Sweet Nangar racing away from her rivals to score a four and three quarter length win in 30.21s, the fastest of the three heats.
Bogan Donnie and Elzy Lay filled the placings and also filled spots in the final.
The box draw was conducted later in the night.
1- Zippy Ethics
2- Brindle Bay
3- Bogan Doonie
4- Elzy Lay
6- Sweet Nangar
7- Stilton Sox
8- Zombie
9- Fancy Irene
10- Hear The Drums
