Nando Banner, Nad El Sheba salute in Richmond MDC heats
Nando Banner took out the first heat of the Million Dollar Chase Regional Series at Richmond on Wednesday with a big finish.
The Barry Gibbons-trained chaser lined up in the 520m feature heat as a +320 chance with top greyhound betting sites.
Jumping from box four, he got out to lead soon after box rise as joint favourite Copious (+170) was checked and fell to the rear.
Nando Banner gave the field something to chase on the turn, as Group 1 Sapphire Crown runner-up Magic Muffin (+170) loomed up with the challenge.
Magic Muffin took over at the front and looked set to kick on and win, but Nando Banner nabbed him in the shadows of the post to get home by 0.03 of a length with Starburst Gisele (+5000) in third.
MDC Regional Heat 1 Richmond – Nando Banner (30.03) – T: Barry Gibbons
Last start, on September 6, Nando Banner finished fourth over the Wentworth Park 520m, and his last win was on August 22 over the Bulli 472m when beating home Betty Birdcage by half a length.
The Fernando Bale x Lilly Banner dog has 13 wins and 18 placings from 48 career starts and has banked $73,165 in prize money.
Copious served up a huge performance to recover and finish fourth to qualify with Nando Banner, Magic Muffin and Starburst Gisele for the Richmond MDC final on September 20.
Nad El Sheba backed up after a sizzling win by 6.25 lengths up the Richmond straight last Saturday to take out the second heat of the Million Dollar Chase Regional Series.
The Peter Lagogiane-trained dog lined up as race favourite, paying $2 with online bookmakers.
At box rise, He's Grand (+2500) got out to lead temporarily before being overtaken by Neptune Banner (+5000) and Nad Al Sheba.
On the final turn, Lagogiane's chaser extended to kick away and beat home Make No Promise (+300) and Anjo Typhoon (+7000) by six lengths in a time of 29.76.
MDC Regional Heat 2 Richmond – Nad El Sheba (29.76) – T: Peter Lagogiane
Crackerjack Aret finished fourth to stamp a ticket for Sam Sultana in next week's Richmond final, after his daughter Michelle had Al's Entity (Bulli) and Isle's Entity (Maitland) qualify earlier this week for the MDC Regional semi-finals on October 6.
The son of Beast Unleashed and Zipping Kelly, Nad Al Sheba has eight wins and seven placings from 17 career starts and has banked $21,860 in prize money for connections.