By JASON ADAMS
SANDOWN Park’s Sandown Cup Carnival kicks off this Thursday night with the running of three Black type races – the Lizrene, Bert Bryant, and the Bill Collins – the first of eight Black type races showcasing the best greyhounds in Australia.
With a feature event being run over each race distance, the night serves as the perfect entre to an exciting month’s racing in which over $800,000 in prize money will be on offer.
Last Thursday night, a number of high profile greyhounds fine-tuned their campaign with impressive performances.
The aptly named Heaps Of Ability announced himself as a greyhound to follow in the upcoming stayers series winning last Thursday night in 41.68. The son of Sandown Park’s 515m record holder Bekim Bale lead all the way to record the fastest time of the year over the 715m journey.
The Carl Schlensog trained stayer is closely related to Australian record prize money earner Miata, and will be aiming to claim one of the few feature finals to elude the West Australian star.
Over the middle distance, Campaspe Will won his 11th race from just 18 career starts, the only dog in Norm Walls’ kennel saluting in impressive fashion, stopping the clock at 34.00.
Campaspe Will’s victory from box eight added another $500 to the Go The Pink Dog Campaign, the month long campaign raising funds for the McGrath foundation.
Meanwhile over the sprint distance, Buckle Up Mason took his career prize money to over $100,000 with his fourth consecutive city win.
The May carnival includes the $145,000 Group 1 Macro Meats Sapphire Crown, Australia’s richest race for female greyhounds, as well as the $145,000 Group 2 Berwick Mazda Harrison Dawson for male greyhounds. The carnival concludes with the world’s richest stayers’ race, the $250,000 RSN Sandown Cup to be run on Thursday 22 May.
