Hot favourite Cobblepot salutes in Ipswich Sprint final
Cobblepot served up another speedy performance to salute in the Ipswich Sprint final on Thursday night.
The Stephen Rolph-trained chaser lined up in the $12,025-to-the-winner final over 431m as the race favourite, paying $1.60 with greyhound betting sites.
Jumping from box one, he used the inside draw to hit the lead and dictated terms from the front for the entire journey, beating home the fast-finishing Fernando Grand ($4.60) by a half-length, in 24.66.
2023 Ipswich Sprint Final – Cobblepot (24.66) T: Stephen Rolph
The winning time improved on Cobblepot’s speedy 24.91, clocked in last week’s fastest Ipswich Sprint heat time performance of 24.91.
Trainer Stephen Rolph told Australian Racing Greyhound his thoughts on the win and said it was far from a perfect performance, with more improvement on the horizon.
“[I am] very happy with that,” he said.
“He is a tired pooch this morning.
“If he didn’t run off at the top turn, I think he might have given the track record a shake.
“But he didn’t, so that’s history now.”
Rolph said his chaser would see a rise back up in distance off the back of the win.
“We are going to give him another go at 500m now,” he said.
“So, he will have a trial or two and see how he goes.”
Rolph was uncertain as to whether he would run the further distance at Ipswich or Albion Park having had previous starts at the trip at both tracks.
At the 520m trip in town, he has had 11 starts for two wins and five minor placings while at the Ipswich 520m he has had one start, on Feburary 20, finishing third in a fifth grade.
The son of Zambora Brockie and Shilo has 19 wins and 18 placings from 50 starts, while accumulating $79,610 for his owner-trainer Rolph.
Bear’s Bullet was the start of the night, winning the Ipswich Gold Cup, which was the major feature race at the Ipswich meeting.