Pagan Midnight upstaged some of the best young greyhounds in the country to set the time standard in the Launching Pad heats at Sandown Park tonight.
At 39 months of age Pagan Midnight was the second oldest of the 85 greyhounds to greet the starter for the $450,000 series. Given little chance by punters, Pagan Midnight ($20.60) jumped flawlessly from box 4 to bound to the lead and hold odds-on favourite Demon Bale at bay to score by a length in 29.48 – two lengths faster than any other heat.
Just over 12 months ago Pagan Midnight became the fastest maiden winner ever at Hobart, scorching the Elwick circuit to win at his second career start by more than 11 lengths. However injuries curtailed the promising pup’s career, limiting him to just 15 starts in the next 13 months. Now with Robert Britton, Pagan Midnight has strung together six starts in six weeks and is on track to add to his five career wins.
Pagan Midnight completed a double for Britton after Reichenbach claimed the night’s opening heat in 29.71.
Angela Langton also claimed a winning double, claiming the final two heats with Edge Of Eden and Dream Edition. Angela’s partner Jeff Britton will also be represented by two runners in the semi finals with Gee Joon and One For Me also progressing after running second in their heats.
The family theme began early in the night when Arabella Figg, bred by Lisa Cockerell, trained by her husband Ian, and owned in partnership with their twin children Morgan and Taylor. David Burnett owned, bred and trained the shortest winner of the evening when My Silver Chisel scored at $1.70.
Invictus Blu continued her impressive run of form for Marlene Schmidt, as did Zipping Zeus for Carolyn Jones.
Arguably the two strongest kennels in the country, Andrea Dailly and Jason Thompson, also won heats with Fantastic Roxy and Aeroplane Bob respectively.
Just one interstate trained greyhound won its heat. Thirty Talks, a highly touted pup in the care of master Queensland trainer Tony Brett, showed its class with a last stride victory in 29.60.
The group 2 Launching Pad is the country’s only sweepstakes event. The series is open to greyhounds with 1-6 wins and no more than 30 starts, and connections must pay a $2000 entry fee to secure a spot in the series.
The winner and runner up of each heat, as well as the 10 fastest third place getters progress through to next Thursday’s semi finals with the winner and runner up of each progressing to the $220,000 group 2 Launching Pad final on Thursday 24 March. Additionally, the next best 32 greyhounds not to progress to the semi finals will contest a consolation series.
Click here for the results from tonight’s meeting.
Click here for the box draw for next Thursday night’s Launching Pad semi finals.
Click on the links below for a replay of each heat.
Heat 1 – Reichenbach (29.71)
Heat 2 – Arabella Figg (29.88)
Heat 3 – Zipping Zeus (29.64)
Heat 4 – Thirty Talks (29.60)
Heat 5 – Aeroplane Bob (29.66)
Heat 6 – Fantastic Roxy (30.09)
Heat 7 – My Silver Chisel (29.71)
Heat 8 – Invictus Blu (29.84)
Heat 9 – Pagan Midnight (29.48)
Heat 10 – Edge Of Eden (29.89)
Heat 11 – Dream Edition (29.74)
