Akii Princess shocks Million Dollar Chase hopefuls
Akii Princess served up an upset at long odds to take out the first of eight Million Dollar Chase (MDC) city qualifiers at Wentworth Park on Saturday night.
Trained by George Borg, the chaser lined up at long +2000 odds with greyhound betting sites.
In the first of 520m heats for the MDC, the Anthony Lord-trained One Hot Bandit was the +130 race favourite from box eight.
Out of box two, Akii Princess shot to the lead soon after box rise and dictated terms from the front for the entire journey to upset the field in 30.05.
She beat home Bella Una (+400) by two lengths with race favourite One Hot Bandit finishing in third.
2023 MDC City Qualifier 1 – Akii Princess (30.05) T: George Borg
The win made it three straight wins for Akii Princess, along with six wins at Wentworth Park, with two of those being run in sub-30 seconds.
In her last start, on September 22, she saluted by 1.5 lengths beating home Fernando Mae in a free-for-all contest over the 320m trip at Richmond.
Akii Princess comes from the first litter out of Sweet City Woman whelped in December 2020, which included five bitches and three dogs, and has produced six individual winners, with Akii Princess the highest earner at $58,170.
The daughter of Superior Panama and Sweet City Woman now has 12 wins and 12 minor placings from 32 career starts.
Despite the shock result for greyhound punters, Akii Princess was not the roughest Million Dollar Chase city qualifier to salute the judge on Saturday night.
The Justin King-trained Lady Divine upset more fancied rivals to lead all the way in 29.88 at massive odds of +5000
2023 MDC City Qualifier 7 – Lady Divine (29.82) T: Justin King
Leading NSW greyhound trainer, John Finn, trained a winning MDC city qualifier double with Zipping Caleb and Zipping Orlando.
Other 2023 MDC winners were Has Ability (29.82), Bandit Bluey (29.86), Jay Is Jay (29.76), and Quantifiable in 29.64.
2023 MDC City Qualifier 3 – Has Ability (29.82) T: Stuart Hazlett
2023 MDC City Qualifier 5 – Bandit Bluey (29.86) T: Jodie Lord
2023 MDC City Qualifier 6 – Jay Is Jay (29.86) T: Selena Zammit
2023 MDC City Qualifier 8 – Quantifiable (29.64) T: Chris O'Brien
Just 64 greyhounds remain in contention to win the 2023 Million Dollar Chase final and score $1,000,000 in prizemoney.