All eyes will be on Gosford on Tuesday night with the 2023 Group 2 Beast Unleashed Gosford Gold Cup final kickstarting a massive month of feature racing in NSW.
All five trainers represented in the decider are yet to taste success in the Central Coast’s premier race, but one will walk away victorious and $40,000 richer on Tuesday night.
It’s the first Group race of the 2023 calendar year but there are plenty of familiar faces in the final field, and after less than a tenth of a second separated the four heat winners seven days ago, the final promises to be tightly contested.
Zipping Novak (29.23), She’s A Pearl (29.27), Good Odds Emma (29.32) and Punter’s Bandit (29.33) all earned their place in the final after winning their respective heats, with the four runners-up including Ibrox Wildfire, Reflections, Fat Boy’s Dream and Mia She’s Fast.
JODIE and Andy Lord will rug up a trio of chances in Tuesday’s final with race favourite She’s A Pearl joined by Good Odds Emma and Punter’s Bandit.
The Box 1 draw is certainly a big plus for New South Wales’ best bitch She's A Pearl, with Andy Lord giving her a big push as the one to beat.
“I think Pearl just needs to come out and if she does and shows her pace, something will have to be very good to beat her from behind. She’s beautifully boxed and she’s got no excuses, the biggest danger is herself. I’d be disappointed if she doesn’t win it because I think she’s boxed to win.” Lord said.
“In big races it’s either the best dog or the best box wins and she ticks both. In saying that, all three of ours are fit and ready to go. Good Odds Emma can show a lot of pace and Punters Bandit will need a bit of luck because she doesn’t have a lot of early speed. If there’s any trouble in the race though, she’ll be the one to watch late,” Lord added.
Lord welcomed She’s A Pearl’s return to familiar track surfaces after racing in a number of Victorian features late last year.
“I think the tracks beat She’s A Pearl down in Victoria and now she’s back here on a flat surface where she can show her speed. The Meadows was like a velodrome and maybe she needed a few more looks at the place but I just don’t think it helped her. Those Victorian tracks just don’t suit high speed dogs so it’s good to be back at a place like Gosford,” Lord said.
Another man who doesn’t mind the Central Coast circuit is local Will Dance.
The Somersby resident will rug up Ibrox Wildfire in his home track Cup, but admits he’ll need a stack of luck if he’s to take the race out.
“She [Ibrox Wildfire] has drawn Box 8 and at Gosford it’s hard to get across from out wide. I would never wish anything bad on the dogs inside her but she probably needs them to get in each other’s way to win,” Dance said.
“Box 8 in any other race probably suits her as she likes to get off the track a bit, but these are the best dogs in NSW so if she doesn’t begin with them, she’s no hope. It’s our local flagship race so it means a hell of a lot to just be in the final,” he said.
"Over the last 10-15 years I haven’t had a dog good enough to be competitive but this bitch can run and that was her first run for three months in the heats so she’ll improve fitness wise, she’s just got to do everything right,” he said.
Dance declaring “it’s She’s A Pearl’s race to lose”.
“She just looks really hard to beat. In saying that, she won’t want to do much wrong early because Reflections in Box 2 can jump and carve left and that could cause her some issues. She’s A Pearl is classy though and she knows what it’s all about so I expect her to go well,” Dance said.
Elsewhere and Mia She’s Fast will step out in her first Group final for Frank Hurst, with the baby of the field set to celebrate her second birthday on January 9.
The daughter of Pixel Pak has quickly asserted herself as the new star of the Hurst kennel and will jump from Box 5 in the decider.
“On times there’s not much between them. You’ve got the best bitch in Australia sitting in the one, but she wasn’t the fastest heat winner. They all went pretty close to one another so there’ll be some luck involved but She’s A Pearl will be hard to beat from Box 1,” Hurst said.
“Mia She’s Fast is not badly boxed either. She wants to be three of four dogs out and once she gets to the turn she’ll come across. I’m just happy to have her in the race because she’s improved a lot in the last few months to make the mark," he said.
"She trialled 29.5 at Gosford in her first look and then she came out and got beat a lip in the heats and ran 29.33 so she’s getting better all the time. She’s only two-years-old next week so she’ll be going straight into the heats of the Futurity after this and who knows, she might be a group bitch, we’ll have to wait to see,” Hurst added.
The Gosford Gold Cup is named after the 2019 winner, Beast Unleashed, who claimed the race for JODIE and Pete Lagogiane in a time of 29.15.
The winner of 10 races from 15 starts was retired after the triumph to begin a stud career where he has produced the likes of Zigzag Cabang (33 wins from 65 starts), Sacred Stance (13 wins from 21 starts) and Mr. Audacious (13 wins from 16 starts).
Other past winners include 2022 champion Zipping Kyrgios, Wow (2021), Cosmic Bonus (2018) and Ritza Hattie (2015).
The Group 2 Beast Unleashed Gosford Gold Cup will be run at 9:24pm and is Race 8 on the program.
The Beast Unleashed Gosford Gold Cup consolation final featuring the likes of French Martini, Gatlin, Canya Smoke Them and Yuko Girl is Race 6 on the card.
