Smart Choice Makes A Smart Distance Debut
Bob Giltinan took the wraps off Smart Choice last night in Heat 2 of the Rapidvite National Distance Championship Queensland Heats. On debut over the distance, the black dog ran a best of the night 42.34 and won well.
Last night’s Rapidvite National Distance Championship Queensland Heats were a bit of a lacklustre affair, with only two heats and 11 runners facing the starter. With eight going through to next weeks final, it wasn’t going to take much of an effort to qualify.
And that was exaclty what Nicely Done managed, just a run.
The recent President’s Cup winner, who has a personal best on the track of 42.25, just plodded around last night and was easily reeled in by the very one-paced Billy Bee Sting in a pedestrian 42.70.
Billy Bee Sting sat never more than a 1.5 lengths off Nicely Done for the entire journey before peeling off the back of the leader and cruising on to win by .75 length, but Billy Bee Sting looked like he could’ve raced passed the leader at any point in the race, if he so desired.
With an easy task to qualify for the Rapidvite National Distance Championship Queensland Final, classy trainer Bob Giltinan obviously didn’t have Nicely Done anywhere near the form that saw her running 42.44 to win the President’s Cup at Albion Park by 10.75 lengths back on July 31st, and she will no doubt improve dramatically for the final and start pre-post favourite despite last night’s loss.
But, Billy Bee Sting won last night’s race very easily, almost without trying; and if the Lorraine Atchison owned and Raymond Burman trained dog knuckles down to next weeks task he could well make the final a very interesting affair.
Bob Giltinan will start both favourite’s for next weeks final as the buzz continues around the Heat 2 winner, Smart Choice.
Smart Choice’s 42.34 was much quicker than Heat 1 and according to Giltinan wasn’t unexpected, “The dog had trialled a brilliant 37.67 at the Gold Coast last Wednesday in preparation for the Distance series heats.”
“He had plenty left in the tank,” said Giltinan.
Smart Choice cleared out over the concluding stages beating Misty Bear by 5.5 lengths with Californian Babe a further 4.245 lengths behind.
Smart Choice has drawn the rails for the final, with Billy Bee Sting drawn outside Nicely Done, as was the case in the heats.
No.NameGradeFormBestLastTrainer
1Smart Choice42716142.3442.34Bob Giltinan
2My Mate Doug54675443.5543.55Wayne Robinson
3Nicely Done12381142.2542.75Bob Giltinan
4Misty Bear45736242.3642.70Barry Dull
5Special Gift51255343.0843.08Joy Harding
6Billy Bee Sting22133142.7042.70Raymond Burman
7Californian Babe31883342.4342.98Paul McIlveen
8Space Odyssey57774443.2643.26Raymond Burman
9Our Team Spirit57368543.5543.55Bill Sharpe
10Our Ally Kay56557543.6943.69Bill Sharpe