Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and had Minnie Finn known her dog Blue Summer Sky was going to run the way he did last Saturday night, she would have entered him for the heats of the TAB Million Dollar Chase.
Instead Blue Summer Sky raced in the Free-For-All, against dogs already in the MDC semi-finals and ran series favourite Good Odds Harada to length, beating the likes of Good Odds Buddy and Federal Lilly.
With that sort of form, he had to be hard to beat when back to his own age on Wednesday night at Wentworth Park in the heats of the Young Star Classic, and it proved to be the case.
“I really should have had him in the Million Dollar heats,” Minnie said after the win when discussing Saturday’s run. “I didn’t want to put any of them (young dogs from that litter) in it really, because I didn’t think they were good enough, but on the times they were running on Saturday night (in the six MDC heats) it was probably worth having a crack at it.
“He was over the (staying) distance not long ago and he was struggling against the likes of Poco Dorado and that, so we thought we would put him back to sprinting, and he’s improving.
“He’s putting it all together now. I’m happy anyway, it’s not a million dollars we’ll be racing for (in the Young Star Classic final) but I hope we can collect the $25,000.”
Blue Summer Sky posted 29.92s beating the Rob Tyler-trained Zipping Truvy who roared home to get second and a spot in the $25,000 to the winner final to be run on TAB Million Dollar Chase Grand Final night, October 18.
Jason Mackay has three runners in Friday’s TAB Million Dollar Chase semi-finals, and he was the first to qualify a greyhound for the Young Star final when Aston Sapporo led throughout to win the event’s opening heat.
Having just his fifth start and the first on the city track, Aston Sapporo notched his fourth win, jumping well and carving across from the seven box to lead at the post, and from there the race was effectively over, the young dog racing away to score in 29.89s.
The reserve Zipping Boston ran home well to collect second place and a spot in the Final.
The favourite Kamikaze Cowlick was uncharacteristically slowly away, and ran home strongly but could manage only third, missing the final.
Barbaresco and Knight’s Page staged a two-dog war for the entire 520m trip in the second heat of the Classic.
Knight’s Page - who had been racing in the Million Dollar Chase heats at The Gardens and mixing it with Get It Gizmo and Federal Lilly - looked likely to cross at the first turn, but Barbaresco kicked up inside and the pair then raced side by side for the remainder of the journey.
Swinging for home it was still either dog’s race to win, and it was ultimately the Darryl Thomas-trained Barbaresco stretching out to win by a neck over Knight’s Page in 30.04s.
The pair both advance to next week’s final.
The flying Jet Jackson improved his record to 13 starts for 11 wins and two placings with a brilliant front-running win in the final heat.
Drawn the eight, Jet Jackson was able to work across the field soon after jumping and once he hit the lead on the first turn, he was off eventually clocking 30.12s.
Electric Silk ran on for second 3¾ lengths lengths away, snatching the final place in the Young Star Classic final.
The box draw for the event was conducted last night and is: 1 Jet Jackson 2 Zipping Boston 3 Electric Silk 4 Aston Sapporo 5 Blue Summer Sky 6 Zipping Truvy 7 Knight’s Page 8 Barbaresco 9 Bill Bath 10 Kamikaze Cowlick.
