Just a dozen TAB Million Dollar Chase semi-finals berths remain up for grabs following the completion of the regional racing of the series on Monday night.
The travelling roadshow has wound its way around 17 regional venues during the 2022 series, and on Monday the final two venues - Maitland and Nowra - provided their representatives for the September 16 semi-finals at Wentworth Park.
The regional events where the first three at each track advanced to the semis, have given us 51 semi-finalists, and with the addition of National Sprint Championship winner Good Odds Cash, this means just 12 places will be available at Wentworth Park on Saturday night when the City Qualifiers will be held.
At Nowra the runner-up in the last TAB Million Dollar Chase Grand Final back in May, the Andy Lord-trained Coast Model, was very short odds to move one step away from back-to-back finals when she contested the Regional Final, and she did advance … but not as a winner.
Like she did behind kennelmate She’s A Pearl in the MDC decider, Coast Model did all the chasing but couldn’t catch the leader, finishing 1¼ lengths adrift of Black Chilli with Neville Brown’s Sombrero a length away in third in 29.48s. All three go through to the semi-finals.
Having just his fourth run back since spending almost nine months on the sidelines due to a hock ligament damage and hip support strain, the Amanda Brunton-trained Black Chilli was able to cross his rivals easily from the eight draw and try as they might, none of his rivals could get near him.
Kennel representative Ken Burnett revealed that entering the Nowra event was something he and Amanda hadn’t actually planned to do.
“You pinch yourself because you are going into a race like this against these good dogs and to run that time tonight off his third start over 500 in 10 months, it’s just unbelievable,” Burnett said. “I went in not knowing how good he was going to end up.
“We went to Dapto early on (three runs back) and he led but didn’t get to the line, this time he’s starting to find the line a lot better. We did extra work with him at home and he’s starting to come to hand really, really good.
“I’m really surprised how quick he has come to hand. It’s been like I said, 10 months.
“I got talked into actually going into the Nowra event. Me and Amanda spoke about it, but I was bringing down some stuff for Glenn Midson (Nowra racing manager) - he needed some stuff for his track, some disinfectant - and I said well I will go down and trial the dog, and when I trialled him, he went so well I said we’ve got to give it a crack now, and that’s what we have done, we gave it a go and this is where we are now.”
Coast Model won her semi-final back in April at Wentworth Park now she’ll look to do it again.
“I thought the run was good. The winner was just a little bit too good,” said Lord kennel representative Ray Dixon of Coast Model.
At Maitland it was the highly-talented Zipping Maserati adding to his impressive record with a strong victory in the club’s regional final.
The Jason Mackay-trained Zipping Maserati improved his record to 23 wins from 42 starts with a 2 length win in 24.85s over Ibrox Wildfire with Casual Glance a close-up third.
It is the second time the young sprinter has made it to the semi-finals of TAB Million Dollar Chase, and in April he came closer than anyone else to reaching the final.
Zipping Maserati led clearly for home in his semi-final but was run down on the line by Irina Riley, the margin between making and missing the final and a shot at $1 million, just a head.
A week later he gave nothing else a chance winning the MDC Consolation by 6½ lengths in 29.57s, a time which would have beaten all by She’s A Pearl in the following race that night, the TAB Million Dollar Chase Grand Final.
