What’s in a name? Well Karina Britton’s brilliant young dog is continuing to live up to his, with the dog named Wow, leaving all at the Gosford track mouthing exactly that word after watching a stunning track record performance.
In the opening heat of the Woy Woy Poultry Gosford Gold Cup, Wow, having his first start at the Central Coast circuit, clocked a staggering 28.88s, a Time which sliced 0.02s from the previous track record set by the Peter Lagogiane-trained Beast Unleashed.
That record was also set in the heats of the Gold Cup, back in 2018, and a week later, Beast Unleashed took out the Group 2 final. Time will tell if history repeats when Wow contests the decider next Sunday night.
Wow, who had little luck in the semi finals of the TAB Million Dollar Chase back in October, then went on to win the Goulburn Cup later that month, has been unstoppable since returning from a short spell winning all four starts.
A dominant win at Goulburn, then two brilliant performances at Wentworth Park, including a flying 29.48s effort, meant he would be hard to beat in the Cup heats, but having his first look at Gosford was a query.
That query was soon answered emphatically, as Wow stepped moderately, but then mustered speed and powered past the early leader Drink Moet before the first turn. From there he was off and gone, leading by eight lengths up the back and all the interest was in the Time and margin. Both were stunning, the margin being 8¾ lengths, and Time, well … Wow!
Wow, a litter brother of Million Dollar Chase runner-up Xerri, takes his record to 13 wins and 6 placings from his 22 career starts.
Lismore Cup winner Fire Legend was into second place heading into the back and held on to that position to secure a berth in next week’s final.
Unfortunately for Karina Britton, Wow’s litter brother Ad Astra was a short-priced favourite to win through to the final in the fourth heat, but was knocked sidewards on the first turn, before showing great tenacity to run home and grab third place, but miss out on a final berth.
The win went to Mick Hardman’s promising sprinter Nangar Rust, having just his third start since being injured when campaigning in Melbourne back in May.
Nangar Rust clocked a handy 29.26s after finding the rail through the first turn then hunting down the leader Hudson Bolt, and racing away out of the back to score by six lengths from Knight’s Page who books his berth in the final. Knight’s Page is trained by Gayle Masterson who won the 2016 Gosford Gold Cup with Knight’s Sprite.
Geoff Grimwood took a step towards winning back to back Cups when Aston Zodiac showed her customary early dash to cross from box 8 and lead the field in heat two, and hold off a late challenge from Bumpy Black to score in 29.56s.
The slightly built bitch who weighs just 24kgs, famously featured as the runner-up behind Good Juan the night that dog broke the internet with his stunning come from last win at Wentworth Park back in June, was not going to be run down on Sunday night, and despite running wide on the final turn, she had a head to spare over Bumpy Black.
In January this year, Grimwood and his wife Leanne won the Cup when Kid Candle caused a boilover, leading most of the way at an $11 chance, winning in 29.60s.
Last week he was clocking 29.66s at Wentworth Park in winning the Group 3 Christmas Gift Match Race series, and on Sunday night, the Justin King-trained Incapacitated continued to show he is one of the emerging sprint stars in NSW with a dominant winning performance in the third heat of the Cup.
Incapacitated was also having his first race start at Gosford but that didn’t stop him posting a very slick 29.11s as he reeled in tearaway leader Casual Glance to score by three lengths and book his Final berth and a shot at a Group 2 feature next Sunday.
Casual Glance was gallant having speared to the lead from the five box but once Incapacitated got into second coming off the back, he was always going to run his rival down.
Incapacitated has now won 15 of his 34 starts with another 11 placings and is a legitimate threat to Wow in next week’s final.
Wow will start a very short=priced favourite for the final after coming up with the coveted box 1 when the draw was done following the heats, with Incapacitated again to exit box 3.
