Melbourne Cup winner headlines field
All is set for an exciting Waragul Cup on Saturday night, with the field headlined by Melbourne Cup winner Aston Dee Bee.
Warragul Greyhound Racing Club manager Adrian Scott said the Melbourne Cup winner headlined a high quality field for the second leg of the Gippsland carnival series.
“We’ve got the number one dog in Australia in Aston Dee Bee, and the local dog in Aston Miley trained at Drouin West by Eddie Lieshout.”
Aston Miley will join her litter brother yet again in a group event after leading from start to finish from box seven in heat three on Friday night, giving punters a bit of a scare as Crook Me Kindly (box six) and Pants On Fire (box eight) tried to bridge the gap.
Aston Miley went on to win by 2.69 lengths in a time of 25.658 for trainer Eddie Lieshout. Crook Me Kindly stopped the clock at 25.846sec, which saw him miss out on a run in the Group Two Warragul Cup by 0.35sec; he is the first reserve.
Aston Miley will have the advantage of a box closer to the rails, drawing box three in the $67,000 final.
Aston Dee Bee continued his domination at elite level with his eighth consecutive victory.
Recording the fastest heat time of 25.493 seconds, the son of Barcia Bale and Aston Elle utilised box one to gain the lead in the early stages of the 460-metre event and win by 8.36 lengths over young gun Peter Galo.
Heat one saw Sandown specialist Shadale (Barcia Bale x Budgie Lass) show his strength to run down Tiempo Dinero, after camping on the rails using box one to his advantage and clocking a time of 25.668sec.
Tiempo Dinero claimed second place and recording a 25.811 second win, which in return earned the Michael Carter trained chaser a rug in his first country cup.
Although Shadale is no stranger to group racing, having won the group three Sir Dillion Memorial, placing in the Speed Star and Group One Maturity – he is yet to compete in a country cup. Shadale has drawn box four in the 2018 TAB Warragul Cup while Tiempo Dinero will again jump from box three.
Jimmy Newob claimed heat two for trainer Kel Greenough, crossing the field in the early stages from box eight.