Dyna Villa Makes His Own Luck
Dyna Villa’s emphatic victory in last Fridays’s Melbourne Cup completed an extraordinary series of eight wins in succession at the Sandown track. Could there be another dog which has done that at any one track? Miata, of course, at Cannington, but any others?
There was another unusual coincidence on the night.
The big race was worth $600,000 to the lucky connections but Australian punters also invested almost the same amount on the race, split up 62% in Victoria, 27% in NSW and 11% on Tattsbet in its four states and territories – Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and the NT. That assumes that online betting figures (which are not published) were in the same proportions as TAB turnover. Win totes alone pulled in a total of $187,000 and the First Four $74,000. Figures may have been helped by crowds deserting the ODI cricket at the MCG in favour of the world’s richest greyhound race?
Perhaps you might shed a tear for connections and supporters (including this column) of second placegetter Chica Destacada as the luck did not run its way. The fact that Dyna Villa was able to lead clearly around the first turn was in part due to the unusual failure of Star Recall (6) and Luca Neveelk (7) to jump well and therefore get in the road. Both these normally good beginners were slow out, leaving buckets of space for Dyna Villa to wind up.
That said, Dyna Villa has improved its starts significantly over its past few runs, recording sections of 5.00 in its heat and 5.04 in the big one.
The second factor was that Chica Destacada got a slight prat from behind as it rounded the first turn, giving the Dyna Villa a bigger break into the back straight. However, Chica Destacada took a lot of ground off the winner on the way to the post. At the moment, 515m is about as far as Dyna Villa wants to go but it may well strengthen as it matures more – it is just 25 months old now.
But go back to the sectional times, which tell the above story in figures.
Runner | Average Last 10 | Cup Time | Difference |
---|---|---|---|
5.15 |
5.19 |
+0.04 |
|
Chica Destacada |
5.08 |
5.09 |
+0.01 |
Above All |
5.16 |
5.12 |
-0.04 |
Awesome Project |
5.15 |
5.12 |
-0.03 |
Cosmic Wise |
5.21 |
5.24 |
+0.03 |
Star Recall |
5.09 |
5.28 |
+0.19 |
Luca Neveelk |
5.03 |
5,16 |
-0.13 |
Dyna Villa |
5.16 |
5.04 |
-0.12 |
(Dyna Villa’s average is affected by slower times in its earlier races at provincial tracks).
The other oddball comment came from the stewards, who claimed …
“Dyna Villa crossed to the rail approaching the first turn checking Keybow, Above All, Awesome Project and Luca Neveelk causing Cosmic Wise and Star Recall to race wide. Chica Destacada checked off Dyna Villa on the first turn”.
Wrong and wrong. This is terrible nonsense. For a start, Luca Neveelk came out poorly and was nowhere near Dyna Villa. The others were well away from Dyna Villa at all stages. Chica Destacada got a slight ankle tap from behind as they went around the first turn, by which time Dyna Villa was well clear.
Too Much, Too Far
The Bold Trease final over the long distance, worth another $100,000, went pretty much as everyone expected. Sweet It Is went well into the red for a while but ended up at a more sensible $2.10 or $2.30 as backing came for Space Star and Blinkers On (the apostrophe should be deleted – it’s incorrect English).
In the event, Sweet It Is jumped quite well, dropped back and then came again at the end as the others faded – and fade they did, at least where it counted. Compare the times.
Runner | Heat | Final | Difference |
---|---|---|---|
Beks |
41.99 |
42.23 |
+0.42 |
Zipping Maggie |
42.03 |
42.19 |
+0.16 |
Sweet It Is |
41.92 |
41.57 |
-0.35 |
Space Star |
41.60 |
41.92 |
+0.32 |
Reap The Benefit |
42.76 |
42.13 |
-0.63 |
Mystic Twist |
42.02 |
42.26 |
+0.24 |
Coulta Rock |
42.70 |
42.28 |
-0.42 |
Blinkers On |
42.15 |
42.24 |
+0.09 |
Zipping Maggie and Space Star had every chance to improve their lot but had nothing left in the tank. Two successive distance races is too much for them, as they have demonstrated before. Blinkers On was sent out at big “unders” of $3.40 and never got in the race.
Sweet It Is looked spectacular as it gapped them in the home straight but it was doing nothing more than it normally does – coming home hard while the others were dropping off. En route, it had met with no real interference except for small hold ups of its own doing.
Once Again
Moving on to Saturday’s Race 6 at The Meadows, the steward’s fairytales continued.
“Kerrigan Bale crossed to the rail approaching the first turn checking Polly Bale, Allen Eryk and Lektra Outlaw”.
Never touched them. Kerrigan Bale speared out and led all the way. It checked nothing – the others made their own problems. What are these guys looking at?
Now if Dyna Villa was retired today we could have a superstar stud dog, but he won’t and he will keep racing to the detriment of his stud career, lightly raced and fast dogs make the best stud dogs
Now if Dyna Villa was retired today we could have a superstar stud dog, but he won’t and he will keep racing to the detriment of his stud career, lightly raced and fast dogs make the best stud dogs