Aspiring stayer turns sprinter for the Sapphire Crown


Tasmanian trainer Ben Englund sent Wynburn Cutie to the mainland dreaming of taking on the country’s best stayers. Instead, on Thursday night, she’ll take on the country’s best female sprinters when she jumps from box 1 in the final of the group 1 Sapphire Crown.

Wynburn Cutie (pictured, with Jackie Greenough) was bred to be a stayer. Sired by four time group 1 winning stayer Destini Fireball and out of Miss Hetti, a winner over 701m at Hobart. The striking white and fawn chaser won 16 of her 22 career starts in her home state before being sent to leading Victorian mentor Kel Greenough for a tilt at the RSN Sandown Cup.

Despite some good early runs including a pair of smart wins over 595m at Sandown Park, it soon became apparent to Greenough that they would need to change tack.

“We hoped that she could run a strong 700m but it became fairly obvious that we didn’t really have enough lead in time,” Greenough said.

“I went down to Warrnambool and gave her a 650m ahead of their Cup heats. She went terrific but didn’t get a start the next week. She needed a couple of 650m race under her belt to go forward and when that didn’t happen we had to re-assess. I thought her run against Tornado Tears in the Speed Star was pretty average, and she just hadn’t had anywhere near the work that I would have wanted to go into a 700m series, especially running against those superstars of Rob Britton’s (Tornado Tears and Rippin’ Sam).”

“So I didn’t see any point in putting her in the Cup. I suggested to her owners that we just go in the Sapphire Crown instead they said ‘do whatever you like,’ so that’s what happened.”

In her first sprint start since March, Wynburn Cutie railed well from the red box and finished strongly to close within a length of Speed Star winner and Sapphire Crown favourite Dyna Patty, running the second fastest time of all finalists and is a $5 chance to claim the final with tab.com.au.

“We lightened her right off and freshened her up as quick as we could. The fact she ran the second quickest gives you a bit of hope. She made a few errors in her heat, didn’t begin as well as she could have. We’ll just keep her on the lead this week, keep her fresh and happy, and hopefully that’ll work out.

“If she can be left alone early and be within striking distance of the leader she’s certainly going to be finishing hard.”

Ben Englund and his father Tom will be making the trek to Sandown Park from their home in Wynyard, an hour north west of Devonport, to cheer on their star in the $145,000 final. Greenough could not speak more highly of the work they do with their dogs.

“I’ve been lucky enough to have taken quite a few Tassie dogs over the years and they know they need a special dog to win a ‘mainland cup’ as they call it.

“The Englund family have been in the dogs for a long time, they do a lot of breeding and rearing and they do it as well as anybody. They are reared hard and tough and come across having every chance. Fingers crossed we can have a bit of luck and run a nice race.”

The Sapphire Crown is the country’s premier race for female sprinters and is one of three group 1 finals to be run on Thursday 24 May, along with the Harrison-Dawson for the male sprinters, and the $250,000 RSN Sandown Cup.

 

Paw note: Kel Greenough won the Sapphire Crown with Cindeen Shelby in 2009

 

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Wynburn Cutie (box 1) runs second to series favourite Dyna Patty (2) in a heat of the Sapphire Crown

Mick Floyd
About Mick Floyd - Mick is the Racing and Media Manager at Sandown Park and has 15 years of experience in the sport. He has a finely tuned talent for finding three legs of a quaddie. You can follow his ramblings on Twitter - @mickfloyd
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