Magistrate holds court to win Ipswich Auction Series Final
Under lights the Ipswich Greyhound Club held an 11-race meeting on Saturday, highlighted by the Ipswich Auction Series Final over 520m.
MAGISTRATE tracked out deep and took the win in the feature race for the Gregory Brennan kennel. With the win in his 21st start, the Fernando Bale progeny made it 12 victories and pushed his prize money past the $80,000 mark.
Last year's winning trainer Tarquin Neal prepared Digital Sea, who jumped at $31 odds but performed well to finish second in this year's edition.
2023 Ipswich Auction Series Final – Magistrate (1st)
In the Past Members Trophy Final (race nine), DE FERRAN started as the shortest favourite on the card at $1.20 and his performance showed exactly why. Straight to the lead from the boxes, the Tony Zammit-trained dog extended the margin to put away the competition fairly quickly with his 19th victory (32:19-2-3).
Trainer Peter O'Reilly bagged a treble of wins with TARAWI LEE winning the opening race and TARAWI MAGIC winning race four navigating through several collisions between runners before finding open air. BAILEY was his third winner for the night in his 169th start and using most of the track fended off late challenges to get it done and show his consistency on the track (18-35-30).
Earlier in the night, two-time record breaker Hara's Opal was left with no response to the fast-starting BLUE HORNET, who celebrated his 30th start with a 10-length win. In his first start at the distance, he got out to lead and showed that was his favourite place to be, taking the spoils for trainer Raymond Burman.
Shishkin went into race two as odds-on favourite with her tilt at two straight for the Jedda Cutlack kennel, but after getting out to sit third and taking a hit in the run, she was left having to find more. BLAZE DUCK took the win for trainer Jamie McHugh, making it a second placing and win for her two-race career. Shishkin was finishing fast even with the knock but left to settle with second.
The Michael Edwards-trained RUBY'S ANGEL celebrated her 121st start with a win (race five) beating Farmor Power, who led most of the trip.