Techo sure hard to beat

TONIGHT’S $5250 Chief Minister’s Cup at Winnellie Park brings together a quality field, including Techno (for Steve Withers) who was impressive winning his first start on the track last week.

The three-year-old – in the care of Peter Donnolley – produced the quickest time (31.99 seconds) over 537m in the Chief Minister’s Cup heats.

“Steve was happy with that run. He probably lost five lengths early and got checked,” Donnolley said.

Tim Mullany’s fellow threeyear-old Stanga Bolt won heat one last week in 32.05 seconds.

The Western Australiabased mentor is confident he can repeat last week’s performance after picking up box four once again.

“As long as he can find the fence, he’s generally pretty good,” Mullany said. “If he draws from one to four, he can generally find the fence. He just doesn’t like congestion.

“When he found the fence (in the heat) I could see he had that open run on the rail.”

Reigning Chief Minister’s and Darwin Cup champion trainer from Queensland, Tom Tzouvelis, will also have his charges Del Rey and Soft Sand ready for action. Expect improvement from Choice Way after her first look at the track last Sunday for Mullany in race one at 5.57pm.

Race two is a good one on paper with plenty of chances, including Tiger’s Spark (Harry Brown) who is knocking on the door.

Sweet Crystal (Brad Yates) appears to be heading in the right direction and the No.7 box should suit the three-yearold bitch in race three.

Elite Falcon with some early luck may have the class edge for trainer Leta Smith in race four.

It would pay to keep a close eye on Nick Day’s charge Gardot – after a break, she has plenty of ability in race five.

Pontypiari appears to be nicely graded, and trainer Graeme Ferns would be looking for a strong performance in race seven.

There was a lot to like about Joe Man’s (Mullany) win last week and stepping out in trip this evening he may take running down again in race eight.

Fled for Withers appears to have strong interstate form and he should prove hard to hold out in race nine.

Arnhem Mayhem for trainer Jamie Hosking won impressively last week and will be hard to beat, however Crocodile Crush (Steele Bolton Bolton), Mahjong Lad (Day) and Gossip Park (Donnolley) will go well in race 10.