Four semi-finals of the 2023 Ladbrokes Golden Easter Egg will roar into Wentworth Park tonight as 32 greyhounds fight it out for eight spots in the April 8 finale of the $300,000-to-the-winner race.
Defending champion She’s A Pearl headlines the program with rising South Australian star Victa Damian, old favourite Zipping Kyrgios and 2022 Melbourne Cup winner Yachi Bale all set to fly the lids on Saturday night.
In the first semi-final, Victorian visitor Peacock will jump from Box 4 with trainer David Plumridge hopeful the blistering early pace out wide courtesy of Yuko Girl will allow his charge a cosy rails run.
“If Yuko Girl comes and holds her line, my guy might be alright if he can jump and find the rail. Zipping Kyrgios is inside us too. I thought his win last week was a real gutsy one but I don’t think he’s been that quick out in the past,” Plumridge said.
“Scramjet has been scratched now too so Kaheem Bale comes into the red and it profiles very similarly to us so it’ll be interesting to see who can find the fence,” he said.
Peacock is named after co-owner and Victorian greyhound form analyst Mitch Ebeyer, with the greyhound giving Plumridge the ride of his training life so far.
“I worked in Melbourne as a public servant for years doing the dogs part time and then during COVID I had to work from home so I saved a few hours each day travelling into work and it gave me more time to do the dogs,” Plumridge said.
“I’ve never been involved in a race like the Golden Easter Egg so it’d be unbelievable if he got through to the final. I think he’s a bit underrated and if he can jump like he has done down in Victoria, he’ll be hitting the line hard and is a hope,” he added.
In semi-final two, WA visitor Custard Monelli will be hoping to make it back-to-back wins after a 29.78 success seven days ago.
David Hobby trains the dog and was over the moon with his performance in the heats.
“I was quite happy with the run considering he’s only young and has never left my place. He’d never seen Wentworth Park either so I think he can only improve,” Hobby said.
“He missed the jump a bit last week a bit too. The boxes in NSW are a bit lower than ours so he needs to work that out and step clean. If he steps, he does have early speed but you need to do everything right when you come up against good dogs,” he added.
Hobby chasing his first Golden Easter Egg winner, with Joanne Monelli producing his best finish (seventh) in the race back in 2009.
In the third of the four semi-finals, Embrace will jump from Box 8 which coincidentally is the same alley that produced her lone Group 1 win in last year’s Peter Mosman Opal final.
With trainer Craig Chappelow undaunted by the wide draw.
“Even though she’s only won one race from that box, we were hoping for that draw. You’ve got a wide runner in Wyndra All Class in Box 1, Yachi Bale is in 2, She’s A Pearl is in the middle so we don’t mind being away from them early,” Chappelow said.
“When you look through the field, I think there’s five Group 1 winners so it’s a very hard semi-final. We’ve never beaten ‘The Pearl’ and I’ve got massive respect for Yachi Bale so Embrace is going to have to run the race of her life and hope for a little bit of luck to be right in it,” he added.
Embrace showing a liking for Wentworth Park with five of her seven career wins coming at the track.
“It took her five starts before she even ran a place at Wenty but over time she’s finally adapted to it and she seems to do her best work there,” Chappelow said.
“She has got a few little quirks but when she’s right, she can certainly run the times to be competitive in these big races at Wenty Park. I know I wouldn’t swap her for any dog.
“She’d had a couple of weeks off prior to the Egg heats and that seemed to get her back to her best. The way she began was the key to her heat win and if she can run that same first section, that puts her in a great place out wide,” he said.
And in the last semi-final of the night, TYSON’s Fury will be hoping to land a knockout blow at a massive price of 100/1.
The Amanda Durham and Rick Anderson-trained chaser only costing the pair a few grand and still in the running for the $300,000 Golden Easter Egg prizemoney.
“Our dream is still alive. It gives people who have never bought a dog before, that can’t afford to buy one for $30,000, hope that they can get into the sport and have some fun and maybe even make some big races,” Anderson said.
“Rob Burton is a co-owner and he put $1000 in. This is his first ever dog and before him, he’d never even been to the races, now he loves it. My 15-year-old daughter Jacinta is in the ownership with me and Mandy too and she studies the dogs form guide at school,” he added.
“She’s got her handlers license so she catches him every race and it’s a fight to get in the car at our place when we go to the races because we’ve only got a two seat car and all three of us want to go,” he said.
TYSON’s Fury will be hoping to land a knockout blow
The roughie of the field named after TYSON ‘The Gypsy King’ Fury, the current WBC heavyweight boxing champion of the world.
With Anderson admitting his boy will need all of his namesakes courage and toughness if he’s to advance to the April 8 final.
“Forget a hundred to one mate, he’s a million to one. We’ll be holding a prayer session at our place today to give him a chance. Amanda is optimistic but I’m a realist and he’ll need a miracle. But that doesn’t matter. This dog has brought my girl Jacinta to life. It gives her some sort of interest, some belief, some hope, she doesn’t care if he runs nineteenth, she just loves him,” Anderson said.
A massive night of chasing, including four semi-finals of the Group 1 Ladbrokes Golden Easter Egg and three heats of the Group 1 Association Cup, will kick off at 6:05pm at Wentworth Park.
