Hasten Slowly was one of three TAB Melbourne Cup contenders to secure a place in the heats with Prelude wins in Series 1 last night.
He jumped the clear favourite ($1.50) in the opening Prelude of the night and didn’t let the punters down. Federal Lilly led the race early but then assisted Hasten Slowly as he was granted the rails run turning for home.
“It’s a relief knowing you’re guaranteed to get through to a Cup heat,” said handler Craig Solkhon.
The Cup is a race that has eluded the Langton and Britton training combination for years. Solkhon is confident that ‘Ollie’ has what it takes to be a serious contender in the series.
“Definitely. It’s very dependent on box draws, but we’d love to just get one in the final. They’re not easy to win going up against the top dogs in Australia, but luckily he’s probably one of them.”
Neo Cleo took out the second Prelude of the night. Her win strengthened her reputation as one of Australia’s most versatile chasers. There would be few greyhounds racing with as much confidence as her, having won six of her last seven outings.
The third and final Prelude of Series 1 went to Orson Allen. He began well to cross the field at the first turn, he then took off to set up his race winning break and went on to win by 4¼ lengths. His win from the ‘yellow’ (box 5) saw $1000 donated to ‘Buy A Bale’ – click here for details.
TAB Melbourne Cup Prelude Series 2 will be run on Thursday October 11. The winner of each Prelude guarantees themselves a spot in heats of the world’s greatest race.
Click here for all of last night’s results
