Circle Of Dreams bounced back to her brilliant best with an impressive victory in a TAB Melbourne Cup Prelude at Sandown Park tonight.
The three-time group race winner was having her third start since following a four month lay off with a hock injury, and handler Matt Lanigan couldn’t have been happier with her performance REPLAY.
“She only had a couple of trials over 400m before those two runs in the Geelong Oaks. She did everything she had to tonight and she’ll just improve from the hit out,” he said.
As impressive as the run was, Lanigan suggested there was still a lot of work to be done before Circle Of Dreams sets her sights on the TAB Melbourne Cup.
“She’ll have a couple of 500m runs to make sure she has that match fitness. She’s missed all of that racing and there’s nothing like race fitness and obviously that’s what she needs right now.”
Mepunga Maggie made it a winning double for the Jeff Britton/Angela Langton team when she took out the final Prelude of the evening. The Geelong Oaks runner up punched through on the rail to take the lead down the back before holding off the fast finishing Spring Bridge by a length in 29.65 REPLAY.
Eight Ball recorded arguably the most impressive victory of the Preludes when he ran down Chief Fernando in 29.70 REPLAY.
After a luckless run in a semi final of the Million Dollar Chase, Eight Ball returned to Sandown Park for the first time since May and reminded all why he is on the fifth line of betting for the TAB Melbourne Cup.
“He went good,” said trainer Phil Smith.
“The track was obviously very heavy and you don’t want to be near the fence so where he was was the ideal spot I think.”
While Smith indicated a tilt at the group 1 Hume Cup was on the cards, the TAB Melbourne Cup was the ultimate target for his charge.
“Definitely the Melbourne Cup, definitely. That’s the big goal of course.”
“He’s got a lot of upside this dog. Tonight was a classic example – if he gets a clear run he can mix it with the best of them. It’s just that first 100m, he has to get around untouched and work through his gears and we can see what he can do.”
The winner of each TAB Melbourne Cup Prelude is automatically exempted into the heats of the TAB Melbourne Cup. Prelude series will be run on Thursday 31 October and Thursday 14 November ahead of the TAB Melbourne Cup heats on Friday 22 November. The final of the world’s greatest greyhound race to be run on Friday 29 November.
For full Conditions and Order Of Entry for the TAB Melbourne Cup, visit www.TABMelbourneCup.com.au.
Click here for full results from tonight’s meeting.
Phil Smith discusses Eight Ball’s TAB Melbourne Cup Prelude victory
