Power And Glory Dominates Despite Burnett Accident
By Simon Orchard
The record-breaking effort of Power And Glory at Bulli on Tuesday night was one of the performances of the 2024 Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase.
But after a serious motorcycle accident on his Bringelly property on Saturday morning, trainer Kenny Burnett almost didn’t get to witness it.
“I was getting ready to slip dogs at about 8:30am and drove my motorbike up the back to open the gates. During all that rain we had over WINTER, the ground became really soft and the bike had made ruts where we kept driving through,” Burnett said.
“My front wheel got caught in one of the ruts, it twisted the handles bars and over I went. I hit a steel post and the bike landed on top of me...it was like a war zone when Amanda [Brunton] found me mate.”
Burnett’s mother and father, Barb and Ken, also rushing to his aid, before whisking him off to Camden hospital for assessment.
“We didn’t know how I was going to end up. Dad took me to Camden but they said it was too serious for them to treat so they put me in a neck brace, threw me in an ambulance and took me to LIVERPOOL hospital,” Burnett added.
“I’ve ended up with 15 stitches in my head and I’ve got a 2cm tear in my liver. I’m a bit of a mess but the doctors reckon I’ll be fine. I just need to take it easy for a few weeks…so I watched last night from the lounge. It was very exciting but I couldn’t jump up or do anything, I was that sore.”
Brunton, with the assistance of her daughter Taylor, taking over the collar and lead duties for the Bulli regional final of the LMDC with instant success.
Power And Glory flying to the front from Box 2 and blistering his way to a new track record of 25.76, eclipsing the previous mark of 25.78 held by Aston Dee Bee and Mowski Star.
All three dogs qualifying for the semi-finals of the world’s richest race series on October 12.
“It was just great to see him come out and he had no trouble either side. He mustered straight up and once he got to the lead, he was always going to be hard to run down,” Burnett said.
“I’m really ecstatic with the way he’s doing. We went close to the record two times previously down there so when he crossed the line and Matt Jackson said it was a record, I thought “you beauty, he’s done it”. That record has been held for a while and it was a hard one to break but he did it.”
Ken Burnett leading out Power And Glory for the final of the Group 3 New Sensation earlier this year
The statement win coming after a luckless effort in the Group 1 Dapto Megastar final on Thursday.
“It was a deflating night. I thought he might have got a bit more luck than he did but Garry Coles’ dog came out of Box 5 and went straight down…he didn’t really give us any room at all,” Burnett added.
“That really crucified him. I really would have liked to be sitting in Box 8 because Good Odds Cobber found a dream run through and the race was all over when that happened. The two quickest dogs in the race were Cobber and our bloke but we didn’t get a crack at all. That’s racing though.”
Burnett now plotting his path towards a million dollar payday.
“I don’t want him to get sick of wenty so I’ll race him there on Saturday night and then we won’t go back there until the semi-finals,” he said.
“As for thinking about the million dollars, that’s a pipe dream still. There’s a lot of good dogs in this series so we need a bit of luck along the way, but he’s got a motor so hopefully he can get a crack at them.”
The Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase series now moves to The Gardens on Friday night for six heats of the Group 2 Black Top. Wagga Wagga will also host their heats on the same night.
