Three Heats Get Under Way For West End Distance Championship
At closing time yesterday, GRSA received 22 nominations for the 2009 West End Draught Distance Championship.
This means that there will be three heats of the Group Three event at Angle Park this Thursday 1st January 2009.
The $25,000 Final will be run next week on Thursday 8th January, with the winner's purse of $17,500.
Half of the nominations come from interstate, with the Rob Britton pair of Gunadoo Magic and Kulu Spirit heading them.
The John Mooney trained Others Quoted, from NSW, is already a Group race winner and trialled well at Angle Park last week running 43.33.
Western Land for Jason Thompson has been placed at Group level and Fast Dream was the recent winner of the West End Distance Prelude series at Angle Park.
Risk It will head up the local charge and perhaps has his best chance to open his Group race duck, on his home track. He has run some excellent races against top company of late for trainer Troy Murray.
Uncle Remus (Todd Kelly) and C'mon Bella (Clinton Trengrove) both have performed well over the sprint and middle distances, but have also won over the longer trip.
Awesome Ryles, trained by Geoff Ryles is an interesting runner, having his first distance start, following a hard finishing second in the recent Christmas Cup at Gawler.
The other highlight of the racing on Thursday will be the running of the $3,500 New Year Sprint. Scull Murphy will be looking to repeat his win in this race last year when he ran a slick 29.66 seconds.
Rick's Pride which has been racing well for trainer Petar Jovanovic in Victoria of late, makes a return to Angle Park in the race.
The winner of the New Year Sprint gains automatic entry to next Week's Advertiser Interstate Challenge if nominated for the Sky Channel Adelaide Cup.