By Mick Floyd
Young Pearcedale trainer Ned McDonald’s Sandown Park winning streak improved to six following his first city double last Thursday night.
Fractured kicked the night off in the best possible fashion when the well supported favourite railed strongly to win race 2 in 29.253 – the fastest time of the night – while Zipping Sullivan completed the double by taking out the Free For All in 29.365.
“It’s a thrill. I’m just happy the dogs are going well at the moment,” said McDonald.
“We had a good run a little while back then ran into some niggling injuries, but they’ve all come back really well so hopefully we can keep the run it going for as long as we can.”
McDonald has a team of just six greyhounds in work making his recent run of success all the more remarkable. Zipping Sultan’s victory was his 10th career victory at the track, all coming from his last 16 starters at the venue. As impressive as that strike rate is, the manner of the victories has been equally so – their average winning time of 29.423 is faster than the average Free For All winning time in 2020 – 29.429.
“It’s a small team but it keeps me busy and I can put 100% into all of them. It’ll keep me busy for the next few years I reckon.”
Zipping Sultan has now won 10 of his 18 career starts including his last three, and McDonald will now set him for the club’s first feature race of 2021, the Australian Sprint on 21 January. Fractured also won his third race in a row and is now likely to step up in distance.
“He hasn’t got the pace that some of the other dogs show. He’s a grade 4 at Sandown now so he’s going to come up against dogs that can run low 5’s (to the first split) and he can’t match that – he can go 5.15 at best – so I will probably go to 600m with him.”
In other news around Sandown, three of greyhound racing’s biggest stars have been named as finalists for the 2020 Sandown Greyhound Of The Year.
Hard Style Rico, Simon Told Helen and Tiggerlong Tonk dominated group racing across Victoria in 2020 and it was at Sandown Park where their abundant ability was on full display.
The triumvirate won 18 races between them at Sandown Park in 2020, four of which were at group level with seven were in sub-29.20 seconds. They combined to win over $800,000 in prize money at Sandown Park alone.
The Sandown Greyhound Of The Year is voted on by the Club’s Directorate, the CEO, Racing Manager and Racing Coordinator and will be announced at the club’s Annual General Meeting at on Tuesday 19 January and presented at the Australian Sprint/Maidment Memorial meeting on Thursday 21 January.
Listed below (in alphabetical order) are the three finalists and their records at Sandown Park in 2020:
Hard Style Rico
Sandown record in 2020
9 starts 4-1-0
Prize money: $459,750
Winning times: 28.91 (TRACK RECORD), 29.17, 29.31, 30.12
WON Group 1 TAB Melbourne Cup
4th Group 2 Shootout
4th Group 3 Easter Gift
Simon Told Helen
Sandown record in 2020
8 starts 5-3-0
Prize money: $220,950
Winning times: 29.11, 29.21, 29.23, 29.26, 29.36
WON Group 1 Harrison-Dawson
WON Gr8 Eight
2nd Group 1 Melbourne Cup
2nd Victorian National Sprint final
Tiggerlong Tonk
Sandown record in 2020
19 starts 9-5-2
Prize money: $120,750
Winning times: 29.03 (Shootout race record), 29.12, 29.14, 29.16, 29.26, 29.32, 29.36 29.38, 29.99
WON Group 3 Shootout
WON Group 3 Easter Gift
2nd Listed Australian Sprint
2nd Gr8 Eight
3rd Group 1 Harrison-Dawson
4th Group 1 TAB Melbourne Cup
Also won five Free For Alls
Paw note: Finalist’s head to head records at Sandown in 2020:
Simon Told Helen vs Tiggerlong Tonk 3-0
Simon Told Helen vs Hard Style Rico 2-1
Hard Style Rico vs Tiggerlong Tonk 2-3
Sandown Greyhound of the Year
Honour Roll
Year Greyhound
2002 Boomeroo
2003 Arvo’s Junior
2004 Whisky Assassin
2005 Closing Argument
2006 Betty’s Angel
2007 Shanlyn Prince
2008 Fallen Zorro
2009 Amity Bale
2010 El Grand Senor
2011 Bobby Boucheau
2012 Irma Bale
2013 Xylia Allen
2014 Sweet It Is
2015 Fernando Bale
2016 Dundee Osprey
2017 Aston Dee Bee
2018 My Redeemer and Tornado Tears
2019 Neo Cleo