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It culminated in a place on the victory dais on Million Dollar Chase Grand Final night last October, but for Sky Wave it all started at Bathurst, and that’s where it will all begin again 364 days later.
Sky Wave was one of the four heat winners from the Bathurst edition of the Million Dollar Chase in 2018, and despite a chequered 12 months since, that is where trainer Vic Sultana will embark on this year’s Chase campaign with the talented sprinter.
Sky Wave, the 2018 NSW National Sprint Championships representative, won her heat easily and went into the Regional Final as one of the favourites. But a bad check on the first turn saw her chances disappear.
Sultana then took Sky Wave to Wentworth Park where she qualified for the semi-finals by finishing third to brilliant Victorian Poke The Bear, then she won her semi-final, and was a gallant third behind Mystic Riot and Jamella Jet in the $1.195 million Grand Final.
Sky Wave would have only five more starts before suffering a fractured toe in the heats of the Group 1 Paws Of Thunder at Wentworth Park in January.
“She needed 10 weeks off after that,” Vic’s son Darren explained. “We brought her back and she was trialling really well, and then she won at Maitland straight away (in May), then ran a place at Wenty - then she had had problems with her wrist.
“We would give her a week off then start again, and it would be fine for a couple of weeks then she would be a bit lame again, but touch wood it seems to be holding up and she’s had a few trials on her own which have been good. She is bit on the fresh side, but she’s going OK.”
Sky Wave is in the second of two heats of the TAB Million Dollar Chase next Monday in Bathurst. She has drawn five and will jump inside Buck’s Future (box 6) and Nangar Gift (box 8).
In the other heat, the 2019 NSW National Sprint Championship representative Good Odds Harada, who finished second in the National final last Saturday in Perth, will be the headline act.
The Frank Hurst-trained sprinter has drawn the six, and will have some stiff competition with the likes of Nangar Kash (box 1), My Mate Fox (box 3), Flying Ella (box 4) Double Up Dee (box 7) and Irinka Lizzy (box 8) against him.
Vic chose not to handle Sky Wave on Million Dollar Chase Grand Final night last year handing that role to Darren.
“It was a pretty amazing night,” Darren recalled. “There were a lot of people there and I remember when I was at the boxes, just waiting to get called over, I looked into the grandstand and it was three quarters full, and I thought wow, it’s amazing what can be done with a big race, well promoted, you can get the crowd to the track.
“The key with her she (Sky Wave) is if she jumps, she leads, and she is hard to run down.
“That night she came out with them. Mystic Riot jumped in front and she’s probably not capable of coming from behind when they are running quick time up front, so to run third was a great effort and to hold off Poke The Bear as well.”
