By MICHAEL FLOYD
XYLIA Allen strengthened her claim as Australia’s fastest greyhound with a stunning all-the-way win in the Group 3 Macro Meats Shootout at Sandown Park last Thursday night.
“It was pretty much over at box rise,” said handler Joe Briffa after the five-time Group race winner landed two lengths in front of the stellar field.
“Her first two sectional times were the best she’s ever gone, and the space she got in the four dog field really suited her.”
Running a dazzling first split of 4.97, Xylia Allen led Banjo Boy by three lengths down the back straight, extending to five lengths approaching the final turn before Dyna Nalin unleashed a devastating finishing burst to reduce the margin to two lengths at the line.
Xylia Allen is the first female greyhound to win the Macro Meats Shootout in 15 editions of the event, and her winning time of 29.07 seconds was a new race record. Ominously, Briffa believes we’re yet to see the best of the daughter of former Meadows track record holder Turanza Bale.
“When we first trialled her at Geelong her (then) trainer Graeme Bate said ‘we’ve got something special here.’ She’s still learning, but the penny is starting to drop now. You look at the sectionals she can run – she’s just unbelievable – I think she’ll be the first greyhound to earn $1 million.”
The win was the 19th from 46 starts and the $50,000 winner’s cheque took Xylia Allen’s career prize money to $454,125.
Next on the agenda for the Jenny Hunt trained superstar is the world’s richest greyhound race and the second leg of Sandown’s $1million Triple Crown, the TAB Melbourne Cup.
“We’ll keep her fresh for the heats next Thursday and if she comes out the way she did tonight anything could happen – she could break the track record.”
The heats of the $500,000 TAB Melbourne Cup will be run this Thursday night with the winner of each heat progressing through to the final the following Thursday.
