Slater sets sail for cup

Leading greyhound trainer Darren Murray and Melbourne Cup favourite Slater get close to model Laura Gairdo and the spoils of victory in the $210,000 Group 1 feature race to be run at Sandown Park tonight. Picture: Paul Munt.

By Brad Kingsbury
POPULAR greyhound trainer Darren Murray will box the favourite for the Group 1 Schweppes Melbourne Cup, Slater, in tonight’s (Thursday) $210,000 final at Sandown Park.
Slater, a four-time Group race winner, has drawn the coveted box one, which has provided 16 winners of the rich race, nine more than any other box in the event’s 51-year existence.
The brindle flyer stopped the clock at 29.83 seconds in the heat and if it gets to the lead will be hard to run down and add the $150,000 first prize to its already impressive $370,410 in stakes.
Its main danger will likely be last week’s fastest heat winner (29.63) Tasman Queen, prepared by Rob Britton and starting from box three.
The sentiment of the night will lie with Paul Bartolo’s attempt to become the first trainer in 44 years to win consecutive Melbourne Cups after Miss Mini Mouse qualified for her second cup final.
Miss Mini Mouse will start from box four and is the winner of 13 of her 37 career starts.
She was the runner-up to her more famous litter sister Betty’s Angel in the 2006 cup.
Bartolo’s wife Diane prepares Talk’s Cheap, which was an impressive winner over Group 1 Australian Cup winner Pete’s Conquest and will start from box five.
Cranbourne greyhound trainers Darren McDonald and Jason Thompson will box three of the eight starters in the feature race.
Thompson’s runner Uno Joel will start from box seven after winning his heat and defeating hot favourite One Tree Hills and last year’s cup winner Betty’s Angel.
The black dog has already secured $48,840 in stakes with 11 wins from 37 starts, but will likely be the race outsider as he is yet to break 30 seconds for the 515-metre journey.
McDonald has two chances in the rich Group 1 final with All Caution taking box two and Shanlyn Prince starting from box six. The master trainer was unlucky not to have even more chances in the race, with two of his other four heat entries, Bye Bye Bones and Cool Effort, finishing second and filling the two reserve runner spots in the final field.
McDonald will be hoping for Shanlyn Prince, an $8 chance in the final, to jump cleanly from the outside and get across the field after winning his heat in a slick time of 29.8 seconds last Thursday.
The champion dog is owned by well-known Garfield trainer Lyn Larson and has already won $118,000 in prize money over its career.
Larson is known as an astute trainer through the dog racing community and was at first reluctant to transfer Shanlyn Prince to McDonald, but now has nothing but praise for the Cranbourne-based trainer.
“I didn’t want him to go and when (husband) Robert and (son) Shannon suggested that Darren might be able to get the absolute best out of him, I was very put out,” she chuckled.
“But he works very hard at it and he is a thorough professional. You wouldn’t get any better than Darren and Shanlyn Prince wouldn’t be anywhere else.”
McDonald’s other starter, All Caution, is on his way up and has earned over $41,000 in his 21 starts, which includes 10 wins.
In the other feature event of the night, the Group 2 Bold Trease Carnival Cup over the 715m course, rising superstar Miagi turned in a stunning Sandown Park debut to win his heat in the best time of the night, 42.18, seconds and will start a hot favourite in the race.