Not only did Peter Lagogiane produce two TAB Million Dollar Chase semi-finalists at Gosford on Tuesday night, he also produced a line which will be hard to top in this series.
Lagogiane and his wife JODIE last year won the inaugural Million Dollar Chase with brilliant sprinter Mystic Riot. Some say it was a once in a lifetime victory … Peter thinks a little differently.
“They tell me lightning doesn’t strike twice … I’m going to prove them wrong … I hope,” Lagogiane joked after he won the Gosford Regional Final with Double Back, and qualified Shez Got Soul for the October 11 semi-finals of the series at Wentworth Park, when she finished fourth.
“We couldn’t be prouder of them both, and more than anything happy for the owners of both dogs. Our new acquisition Shez Got Soul, and this bloke has been with me since day dot, we’re very happy.
“That was pretty good. We said this bloke can run a bit of time and he just had to come out at the start and he did that.
“(Runner-up) Nangar Jack was pretty brave in defeat, it was just a case of this bloke rounding him up and tonight he got to show what he can do.
“We set him up for this and had the Gosford heats in mind for him. We had him in the (Group 2) Black Top (at LADBROKES GARDENS) and he made the Black Top Final and was beaten by group dogs in the final.
“Tonight though, he just did everything right.”
Double Back clocked a slick 29.25s in beating Nangar Jack by 3¾ lengths with Jamella Jet third ½ length away, and Shez Got Soul a further ¾ length away in fourth.
“It’s great to get through to the semi-finals,” Nangar Jack’s trainer Tim Caines said. “We’ll work out a plan for him between now and then, but it’s good to be able to get through early.”
Jamella Jet was runner-up behind Mystic Riot in last year’s Grand Final, and he too is now a step away from contesting another final and potentially going one better.
“We got there, so we’ll now look forward to the semi-finals,” trainer Adam Crouch said. “We had to scrape through last week (in the heats) and he was a lot better this week.
“We’ve got a fair idea what we’ll do between now and the semis. We’ll probably give him a couple of weeks off then try and get a few runs into him before the semi-finals. We don’t really want to wrap him in cotton wool so to speak, just give him a couple of weeks to freshen up and go from there.”
