The Bill Collins Speed Star headlines a group 3 triple bill at Sandown Park tonight. It’s a Punter’s Paradise with great chasers, great bet options and a big quaddie pool! Here’s what you need to know.
1. Trial form vs race form
One of the unique features of the Speed Star format is that greyhounds can trial their way into the series, and that trial form has provided a solid form reference. All three Speed Star series run thus far have been won by the greyhound that had run the fastest trial. In fact, all three greyhounds that trialled their way into the September 2016 series finished in the top four. Four greyhounds trialled their way into the September 2015 series, filling the top three positions overall.
2. Speed and strength
Successful Speed Star dogs not only need to be fast, but strong too. The placegetters of the last two Speed Star series have all won over 600m or further. In fact, three of the September 2016 Speed Star finalists are engaged in tonight’s group 3 Racecallers over 595m (Dundee Osprey, Burn One Down and Shima Song), while Polijuice Potion will step out over 715m.
3. “The best 595m race you’ll see this year”
That was Sky Racing’s Mark Duclos’ summation of the group 3 Racecallers and it’s hard to disagree. The eight runners have combined for almost $2m in prize money and features four group 1 winners (Shima Song, Burn One Down, Fanta Bale and Dundee Osprey).
4. She’s all grown up
Striker Light turned two in March and has already amassed an impressive record of 14 wins from 22 starts, seven group finals (with two group 1 wins) and almost $400,000 in prize money. She returns to Sandown Park for the first time since running 6th in the group 2 Laurels final on 15/12/16. She’ll be set for next week’s group 1 Sapphire Crown final which carries a $100,000 first prize.
5. The Fernandos are coming!
The first wave of Fernando Bale pups are starting to hit the track, and tonight sees his first Sandown metro runners with Oshkosh Yobbo and Baby Huey lining up in the Vic Bred Maiden Final. Baby Huey was actually his first winner at Sandown Park when he won his heat on 30/4, and is the litter brother to Fernando Bale’s first race stater (as far as we can tell) – Ravenna, which made her debut at Newbridge in Ireland on 3/3/17.
Punters heaven!
There’s so many options for punters to get excited about tonight!
There’s a $75,000 projected quaddie pool, first leg race 5 at 8.28pm.
As well as the normal range of pari-mutuel bet types on the Speed Star, TAB is also offering the following markets for the Speed Star:
- Overall winner (based on each greyhound’s time)
- Each match race
- Fastest first split
- Winning time bracket
- Which box provides the most winners
- Selected special head to head match ups
- Click here for all the latest markets
Punters are also advised that there will be no Early Quaddie, and the BIG6 will be on races 5-10
Feature Speed Star coverage
Mark Duclos will be trackside bringing you all the action with special extended coverage of the Bill Collins Speed Star, live on Sky Racing 2 (channel 527)
All match races will be shown on Sky Racing 2, while only the first and last match will be shown live on Sky Racing 1 (channel 526)
Get your tips in to win BIG!
Top Dog Tipping continues this week! Every week is a fresh competition so if you forgot to get your tips in (or had a bad week) register for your chance to win $1000 cash, and if you’re in the top 5% of tipsters, an invitation to Sandown Cup night for a chance to win $10,000! To register, Click here to register and lodge your tips.
The good thing: Trip To Eden (race 8 number 2)
Each way all day: He Shall Johnny (race 9 number 7)
Click here for your free Watchdog form guide for tonight’s meeting.
Click here for the latest markets from tab.com.au. TAB account holders can access race previews from Sky Racing greyhound expert Mark Duclos.
Click here for Jason Adams’ Sandown preview, as heard on RSN – Racing and Sport
Social Media
Follow all the news from the track and join the conversation on Twitter @sandowndogs
You can also follow the action from on course on Snapchat (username: Sandowndogs)
