The lightly-raced Jamella Jet not only lived up to his name, but stamped himself as a serious contender with a dazzling front-running display in the GRNSW + Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase heats at Richmond on Wednesday.
Jamella Jet, who registered his sixth win from just 11 outings, was just half of what was a tremendous night for father and son training team of Andrew and Adam Crouch, with their kennel star Big Butters also winning one of the three heats conducted.
But it was Jamella Jet’s performance which had most people talking.
Not a noted fast beginner, Jamella Jet stepped well then mustered good speed and charged across the field from his seven box, heading into the first turn. A slight skirmish behind him, and Jamella Jet was off and gone and the race was over heading up the back straight.
But the clock showed that Jamella Jet hadn’t just got lucky because the others found congestion on the first turn. He won by by seven and three quarter lengths from Rockstar Kyle, with the odds-on favourite, Group 1 placegetter Zipping Falcon, finishing third. Jamella Jet stopped the clock at 30.47s, clearly the fastest of the three heats.
Adam had said before the race that while Jamella Jet had not raced at Richmond, he had had a look at the track, and run fast time.
“We hadn’t been out of the boxes here, but I put him post to post and … it actually suggested that he would run a bit quicker,” Adam said. “It’s still a top run and particularly compared to the other two heat runs. He’s done really well.
“It was good that he came out tonight, and once he hit the front going down the back we knew they were going to find it hard to run him down.”
Like his kennelmate, Big Butters drew wide, and she too was able to get across at the first turn and track the leader Awesome Catch.
The pair had the race to themselves heading out of the back and Big Butters was able to draw ahead and narrowly win by a neck in 30.75s.
In the other heat at Richmond, like Jamella Jet, Fast Car Driving was able to cut across his rivals on the first turn and open up a big break. Unlike Jamella Jet, there were plenty of anxious moments for his supporters, as both Miss Wing Wong and Zipping Bailey charged home.
But Fast Car Driving was able to cling on and win by head in 30.93s from Miss Wing Wong with Zipping Bailey a half length away in third.
After the three heats were completed, first and second, and the two fastest third, made it through to the final, and the dog who probably would have been favourite to win the Richmond series before a heat was run, Zipping Falcon, had missed the final after clocking 31.14s.
The box draw for the final was conducted later in the night, with Jamella Jet drawing the five, Big Butters the three and Fast Car Driving the eight.
The Box Draw for Richmond’s regional final to be run on September 28 is:
2-Awesome Catch
4-Miss Wing Wong
7-Bimini
8-Fast Car Driving
10-Bugatti Quest
