By JASON ADAMS
FERNANDO Bale blitzed his rivals for the second consecutive week at Sandown Park on Thursday evening and will start as the short favourite in this week’s Group 3 Bill Collins Memorial.
In typical Fernando Bale fashion, he exploded from box 5 to set an electric 4.93 to the first split before he stopping the clock at an astonishing 18.36 to the second marker – breaking the record jointly held by champions Black Magic Opal and Xylia Allen – by 2.5 lengths. He completed the 515m journey in 29.04, the third fastest time ever recorded at Sandown Park.
RSN racecaller James Van de Maat was effusive in his praise of Fernando Bale.
“I’ve never seen a greyhound travel that quick in the six years I’ve been calling greyhound racing,” Van de Maat said.
“To break any type of record by the smallest of margins is significant enough, but to break it by two-and-a-half lengths at Australia’s premier track is incredible.”
Van de Maat, who called Bekim Bale’s track record 28.96 run in 2011 believes Fernando Bale’s run on Thursday was more impressive.
“To run the sectionals he did in that type of field, in my opinion it was more impressive than Bekim Bale’s record run,” he said.
Fernando Bale’s next assignment will be next week’s Bill Collins Memorial which is shaping to be one of the great races of modern times with the possibility of superstars Dyna Villa, Dyna Double One and My Bro Fabio all featuring in the $36,000 Group 3 event.
“This race has the potential to be better than any Melbourne or Australian Cup ran in recent times, however I still think there’s no greyhound in the country that can match it with Fernando Bale,” Van de Maat said.
“If he can repeat his 4.93 first sectional it’s not going matter if there’s a semi-trailer next to him… they’re not going to get near him.”
The Group 3 Bill Collins (515m) coincides with the Group 3 Racecallers (595m) and Group 3 Lizrene (715m), which will feature some of Australia’s finest chasers. The trio of Group 3 events kick off the club’s Sandown Cup carnival that includes the Group 1 Harrison Dawson and the Group 1 Sapphire Crown before culminating with world’s richest staying race, the $250,000 Group 1 RSN Sandown Cup on Thursday 21 May.
