Outsider Bolts Into National Sprint Final At The Meadows
Allen Hertz – at the juicy odds of $32 – upstaged his more fancied rivals in Saturday night's Victorian Sprint final at The Meadows, giving trainer Graeme Bate and the Wheeler family two runners in the National final on August 25.
With Tonneli Bale already qualified for the Group 1 National Sprint Championship as the highest AGRA ranked greyhound to make a state final, Bate's chasers made no mistake of getting a second Victorian entrant into the Nationals, finishing with the trifecta from his six runners.
Allen Hertz gave nothing else a chance, spearing out to the early lead, stopping the clock at 5.05 and 17.62 before striding away to score in 29.87, five and three quarter lengths ahead of favourite Radley Bale.
Allen Elroy finished two and a quarter lengths further back in third.
Bate – who won the Sprint title with Henerik Bale in 2001 – will aim to become the first Victorian trainer to take out the Group 1 Macro Meats National Sprint Championship since Darren McDonald enjoyed victory with Pure Octane in 2005.
This year's running is worth $75,000 to the winner for the first time in the race's 46-year history.
Allen Hertz improved his record to 10 wins from 33 career starts, raising his prizemoney to $39,800.