On a night where the Victorian kennel of Andrea Dailly completely dominated the Richmond heats of the TAB Million Dollar Chase, defending Chase champion Mystic Riot failed to qualify for the Regional Final, and must now look for another avenue into the semi-finals.
The Daillys won all three heats at Richmond, filling the first two placings in two of those and as a result will have five finalists in next Friday’s event.
The pick of the trio of winners was the last, Jaro Bale, who stalked leaders Mystic Riot and Black Forge, before taking over up the back straight, and racing away for a victory in 30.53s, easily the fastest of the night. Second was Shanjo Prince, with Mrs Emgrand a great third and picking up a spot in the Regional Final with the effort.
“He’s probably a bit better than what most people think,” said Andrea’s husband Tom. “He has really got a motor and he showed it tonight. He showed good track sense and he powered away. He went very good.”
But the story within the story was Mystic Riot. The 2018 Million Dollar Chase winner led from the unsuitable one box draw, but drifted off the rail up the back and allowed Jaro Bale to rail underneath her and race away. She would eventually finish fifth.
“I think she was worried out of it in the early stages and boxed upside down,” trainer Peter Lagogiane said. “If she got fresh air early and left alone in front it would have been a different story but that’s the way it goes.”
Lagogiane said they will now head to LADBROKES GARDENS on Saturday September 21 with Mystic Riot, but already the indication is that the Gardens’ heats will be very hot ones. If not successful there, then there are the Wentworth Park qualifiers on October 5.
While that first win of Jaro Bale was for the best for the Daillys, it was just the cream on the cake.
In the opening heat the kennel filled the quinella with Dyna Unther leading all the way to win in 30.78s.
His kennelmate Lektra Spring Chased hard in second all the way, with local dog Fernando Porche running home well for third.
And then in the second qualifier, it was Lektra Zephyr charging to the lead up the back and going on to win in 30.77s, and like the first heat, the Daillys again collected the quinella with Rockstar Beav charging home for second, half a head in front of He’s All Shine, whose performance was good enough to squeak into the final.
“It’s a nice track isn’t it,” Tom said with a chuckle. “I probably wouldn’t have thought we would get these results – three wins and five into the final - but they are good city dogs down in Melbourne and they got clear runs tonight and it’s a beautiful track, a nice big open track and they all seemed to get nice clear runs tonight.”
Last year the Dailly kennel provided eight semi-finalists of the Million Dollar Chase. All qualified through the Wentworth Park City qualifiers. Only one advanced to the Grand Final, that being Dyna Harpa who finished unplaced in the $1 million to the winner event
Tom said they will again head to Wenty for that last chance night of heats on October 5, but they will also continue to attack the Regional events.
“We’ll take a few more to Wagga next week and see how we go,” he said.
The draw for next Friday's Regional Final is: 1 Lektra Zephyr 2 Lektra Spring 3 Shanjo Prince 4 Jaro Bale 5 He's All Shine 6 Rockstar Beav 7 Mrs Emgrand 8 Dyna Unther 9 Fernando Porche 10 Reiko Boss.
