Magic Eight Ball storms into Speed Star


The unheralded Eight Ball charged into the Bill Collins Speed Star with a dazzling 29.238 performance on the final day of qualification at Sandown Park today.

With 15 greyhounds trialling to make an impression on Speed Star leader boards, it was the performance of Eight Ball in race 4 that had the biggest impact on the Speed Star standings. Having it’s 10th race start, Eight Ball began only fairly from box 6 running 5.12 past the first split but appreciated an unimpeded run to sweep around the leaders and take the lead entering the back straight. Despite the best efforts of race favourite Glorious, Eight Ball prevailed to score by 2½ lengths and charge into 5th place in qualifications.

It was the greyhound’s third career win and second in three starts in the care of trainer Phil Smith, who suggested there may be more improvement to come from the son of Shootout champion Kayda Shae who is still a month shy of his second birthday.

“He’s just a beautiful looking dog, he’s 38kg all leg and muscle and he has a presence about him,” he said.

“He’s still just learning, he’s only had a handful of starts. He goes a bit wide at the corners so it’ll be interesting to see what he does when he draws inside but I think he likes a bit of room. I hope he gets box 3 (in the Speed Star).”

Feral Franky was the only greyhound to trial its way into the Bill Collins Speed Star (515m), the highly regarded New South Wales sprinter running 29.271 to move into 7th place in the standings following confirmation that Hasten Slowly will not take its place in the series.

Over the 595m, She Will Bloom (5th – 34.043), Neo Cleo (6th – 34.061), and Blue Striker (8th – 34.073) all did enough to make it into the Racecallers Speed Star final field, while there was no movement in the 715m Lizrene standings.

The Speed Star brings together the country’s fastest greyhounds in a series of match races with a total of $190,000 in prize money up for grabs. Greyhounds qualify based on times recorded at Sandown Park since 1 January 2019 and the fastest 8 nominations over each distance qualifying for their respective $50,000 group 3 event, while the next fastest 16 qualifiers over 515m will compete in one of two $20,000 consolations series. Prize money is on offer for the winner of each match, as well as the greyhounds that run the fastest time in each series.

Nominations for the series close at 10am on Wednesday 1 May with fields and matches to be drawn soon after with the Speed Star to be run on Sunday 5 May.

Click here for the results of today’s trials.
Click here for the final leader boards.

TAB has opened a market on the overall winner of each of the group 3 Speed Star events. Interestingly, the fastest trial dog in each series heads the market.

Bill Collins Speed Star (515m) market
Racecallers Speed Star (595m) market
Lizrene Speed Star (715m) market

 

Eight Ball records the fastest time of the day and race into the Bill Collins Speed Star

 

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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