Shall Not justifies short odds in Straight Of Origin win
Shall Not dominated the Straight Of Origin Final at Capalaba on Sunday while smashing a kennelmate's record in the feature.
Last year's edition of the 366m race was won by Mr America, trained also by Darren Sultana, in 19.54.
This time, Shall Not lined up as a $1.30 favourite for the $40,000-to-the-winner invitational and did not miss a beat, running away with a four-length victory in 19.40.
“It was a good race and he deserved to be favourite but he should not have been so short against a field like that,” trainer Sultana said.
From the inside box, Shall Not crossed to the middle to power home down the centre of the straight.
“He has always done that, even at Richmond, even drawn on the outside he will veer into the middle,” Sultana said.
“He drew a great box and he showed once again that he likes to be in the middle of the track.
“I do prefer him to jump from the middle because that's where he ends up.
“It's a little bit risky to be out of the one box because you never know if he is going to get across to be where he likes to be running.
“Even though he had the one box and everybody expected him to win from there, it was not that easy.
“The way it turned out he moved to the middle, didn't get held up and got away with the race.”
Shall Not once again beat home the Tony Brett-trained Panama Canal, this time by two lengths, with the Jeff Crawford-trained Lose Your Cool in third.
The win makes it 12 straight and a form line of 27 wins and nine placings from 43 career starts, with $82,210 in prizemoney earned.
Sultana admits there are no firm plans for his kennel star but he will keep racing while he is performing so dominantly.
“We will head back to Richmond now where he loves to race,” he said.
“The dog is loving racing and as long as he loves racing, I will keep him racing.”
2023 Straight Of Origin Final – Sunday, June 18
Winner: Shall Not (19.40)