Fernando Bale, regarded by many as the greatest greyhound to grace the track, lines up for what may be his final start in the world’s richest race, the $600,000 TAB Melbourne Cup this Friday night.
The son of Kelsos Fusileer and Chloe Allen became the first greyhound in history to surpass $1m in prize money, an extraordinary effort for a 29.7kg chaser that was unplaced at his first two starts and had just three wins in his first seven.
Since that modest beginning, Fernando Bale has won admirers from around the world, and with numbers like these, it’s not hard to see why.
UPDATED FOLLOWING HIS MELBOURNE CUP RUN
| Starts | 41 |
| Wins | 33 |
| Placed | 5 |
| Prize money | $1,288,110 |
| Average PM per start | $31,471 |
| Best of Day wins | 26 |
| Longest winning streak | 16 |
| Tracks raced/won at | 8 out of 8 raced at |
| Group finals/wins | 11 wins from 12 finals |
| Average winning margin | 5.59 lengths |
| Biggest win | 11.25 lengths |
| Smallest win | Neck |
| Average starting price | $1.93 |
| Longest starting price | $5.60 |
| Shortest starting price | $1.04 |
| Started Favourite | 37 |
| (last 28 consecutive since 7 March 2015) | |
| Started odds-on | 29 |
| Consecutive starts ‘odd on’ | 23 |
| (last start ‘in the black,’ 4 April 2015, Easter Egg final) | |
| Consecutive wins | 0 |
| (last defeat, Sandown Park 20 November 2015) | |
| Consecutive placed | 34 |
| (last unplaced run, Sandown Park 15 January 2015, 5th) | |
| Races since started evens or better | 23 |
| Has won 25 of last 28 starts | |
| Has won 30 of last 34 starts | |
Wins by box
| Box | Starts | Wins | % | Group wins | |||
| 1 | 7 | 6 | 85.7 | Topgun, Harrison Dawson, Bill Collins | |||
| 2 | 5 | 4 | 80.0 | Maturity | |||
| 3 | 7 | 5 | 71.4 | ||||
| 4 | 3 | 3 | 100.0 | Peter Mosman | |||
| 5 | 6 | 6 | 100.0 | National Sprint | |||
| 6 | 8 | 6 | 75.0 | Adelaide Cup, Traralgon Cup | |||
| 7 | 4 | 2 | 50.0 | National Derby | |||
| 8 | 1 | 1 | 100.0 | Golden Easter Egg | |||
| 41 | 33 | 80.5 | 11 | ||||
The $600,000 TAB Melbourne Cup will be run on Friday 20 November. Entry is free.
