Bear’s Bullet shines in Ipswich Gold Cup heats
Bear’s Bullet took out her heat of the Group 2 Ipswich Gold Cup in the fastest time of the eight qualifiers on Thursday night.
The Travis Elson-trained chaser was sent to the boxes as a -200 favourite with greyhound betting sites and rewarded backers with another great performance.
Jumping from box three, Bear’s Bullet speared out to hit the lead and would control from the front for the entire 520m journey.
She beat home Jen’s Joy (+1200) by two lengths in a speedy 30.17, with Caramel Queen (+2500) finishing in third.
Ipswich Gold Cup Heat 4 replay – Bear’s Bullet (30.17) – T: Travis Elson
The winning time came awfully close to her personal best of 30.16, clocked last time out on October 21 in her only other run at the track.
Elson told Australian Racing Greyhound he was impressed with Bear’s Bullet’s performance and glad to be in the final.
“Bear’s went super, and we were stoked with her,” he said.
Bear’s Bullet will jump from box four in the final, where she will be joined by the other six heat winners and Jen’s Joy, who was the fastest runner-up.
“She needs to ping the lids to cross from box four, but I’m just happy to be in the final,” Elson said.
The daughter of Fernando Bale and Mumma’s Hope will enter next week’s $150,000-to-the-winner final as a leading contender, armed with a record of 15 wins and 13 minor placings from 38 starts.
The other heat winners were Dino Way (30.57) to jump from box five, Saanvi (30.25) in box three, Get Carter (30.60) in box eight, All Natural (30.31) in box one, King Of Aces (30.53) in box six, and Blue Hornet (30.58) to come out of box two (30.58), with the latter holding the 520m record of 29.83 at the Ipswich track.
Last year’s edition of the Ipswich Gold Cup was won by the Jemma Daley-trained Hara’s Herbie, who beat home Sunburst by four lengths in a time of 30.19.