She’s A Pearl connections not bothered by tricky Easter Egg draw
She's A Pearl is a $1.95 favourite for the Golden Easter Egg Final at Wentworth Park this Saturday, and connections are confident despite a tricky draw in box five.
The Jodie Lord-trained chaser ran a breathtaking 29.46 seconds over the 520m distance in her semi-final last Saturday night.
Despite the draw, Joe Lannutti – head of the 12-person syndicate which races the star two-year-old bitch – is happy to be outside Peter Presutto's Idolize, who ran the second fastest time of 29.63 during the semi-finals last Saturday night.
“It's just good to be outside of Idolize. That was all we wanted,” he told AustralianRacingGreyhound.com.
“Hopefully we can just begin clean and get a bit of a clear run early.”
READ: NO WORRIES FOR IDOLIZE DESPITE GOLDEN EASTER EGG DRAW
If She's A Pearl can run another scorching first sectional – like her 5.35 seconds last Saturday night – it would take a brave punter to not back her, even from the number-five lane.
“She's incredibly special. She's our golden girl, really,” Lannutti said.
“We've had her now for nine starts and she's won eight of them.
“We've got a really good bunch of owners involved, so it means a lot.”
Jodie and Aaron Lord are yet to have a Golden Easter Egg title on their glittering resume, so it is no surprise that a win in the final would be a career highlight for them.
“(It would mean) everything. It's the number-one race in New South Wales. You dream of winning that race,” Lannutti said.
“It could be the last one at Wentworth Park – who knows.”
Lannutti said it has been a pleasure to be involved with the Lords.
“They're the best. Andy, Jodie and I are always on the phone. We love it,” he said.
“I've done it for five years.
“We've had just under 900 winners now. This is our 41st Group 1 finalist.
“It's pretty exciting.”
Lannutti noticed She's A Pearl had X-factor from the moment he first laid eyes on her.
“She won six in a row before we bought her,” he said.