RSN Sandown Cup winner Irma Bale took her first step towards an unprecedented Cups double by winning a TAB Melbourne Cup Prelude at Sandown Park tonight.
The $2.50 favourite began brilliantly from box 8, running a stunning first split of 5.02 seconds to lead clearly through the first turn. From that point she would never be headed, extending her lead to six lengths at the line and stopped the clock in a slick 29.54 seconds.
“She’s just a great chaser,” said Joe Briffa, handling the champ on behalf of trainer Graeme Bate.
“She’s sprinting as well as she ever has and will definitely head towards the Cup now.”
Irma Bale has already raced in a Group final over Sandown Park’s 515m distance, having run fourth in the Group 2 Macro Meats Laurels in December 2011, however it is over the staying distance that Irma Bale has made her name. After winning the nation’s richest staying race, the RSN Sandown Cup, Irma Bale reached a further four Group race finals, running second in four of them.
Bate switched the accomplished stayer back to sprinting after she ran fourth to Bell Haven (herself a brilliant winner of race 4 at Sandown Park over 715m) in the Group 3 Sydney Cup. She resumed her sprinting career with an impressive win at Geelong before wowing the punters with her win tonight.
The win was the 26th of Irma Bale’s career, and the third in six starts over the Sandown Park 515m. She has now own more than $290,000 in prize money.
In 2010, Symmetry contested the RSN Sandown Cup (5th) before going on to contest a TAB Melbourne Cup (2nd), however no greyhound has won the RSN Sandown Cup before going on to compete in greyhound racing’s biggest event.
Roy Galo made a welcome return to form, defeating Macro Meats Shootout nominee General Destini by 2.5 lengths in the fastest time of the night.
Roy Galo ($5.70) began well from the unfancied box 1 and proved too strong for General Destini ($2.20) to land his sixth win at the Lightwood Road circuit. It was Roy Galo’s first win in five starts, and his winning time of 29.46 seconds was his fastest run since running 29.31 at just his third race start.
Vapourish won the night’s opening Prelude for Lindsay Morshead when he defeated Soda Boy by 3.5 lengths in 29.58, Mepunga Melachi won in 29.73 for Joy McDowall, while Coal King continued Jason Thompson’s recent hot streak when he took out the night’s final Prelude in 29.65.
Each TAB Melbourne Cup Prelude winner has now secured its berth in the heats of the TAB Melbourne Cup on Thursday 15 November. The $500,000 Group 1 TAB Melbourne Cup final will be run on Thursday 22 November.
For a full list of greyhounds that have earned an exemption into the TAB Melbourne Cup heats, click here.
The next feature event at Sandown Park is the Group 3 Macro Meats Shootout. Nominations for the four-dog $50,000 winner-takes-all spectacular close at midday on Monday 29 October with the field to be announced on the Catching Pen on Sky Racing 2 from 7.30pm.
The Macro Meats Shootout, along with the final TAB Melbourne Cup Prelude series, will be run on Thursday 8 November.
