Trip To Eden wins 2017 Group 1 Australian Super Stayers
TRIP To Eden has upstaged his star kennel mate Burn One Down to score a sensational victory in the Group 1 Australian Super Stayers (525m) at The Meadows on Saturday night.
Trained by Jason Thompson, Trip To Eden was sent to the boxes as the $4.80 second favourite behind Burn One Down ($1.65), with both greyhounds in the second half of the field in the run to the first turn.
Charging through to take the lead was Teddy Monelli (box five) over Alera Bale (box eight) and Dundee Calypso (box one), with Burn One Down (box six) held up in traffic and shuffled back through the field swinging into the straight on the first occasion.
Meanwhile, despite showing no pace out of the boxes, Trip To Eden (box three) was able to avoid interference, railing his way into fourth spot, spotting the leader around six lengths at the post the first time.
Once he was in the clear, Trip To Eden began grinding away, hooking to the outside and surging into third down the back straight.
Turning for home the final time, the black dog got a beautiful run in between Teddy Monelli and Alera Bale, bursting through the centre and charging clear to score by one-and-a-half lengths in 42.31.
Burn One Down was never out of trouble, finishing at the tail of the field.
Despite appearing slightly shocked by the result, Thompson said Trip To Eden has been knocking on the door of a feature win for some time.
“[Burn One Down] just got buffeted around early and just didn't get the runs through, I actually thought he might have been where Trip To Eden was [early],” Thompson told Sky Racing.
“[Trip To Eden] probably wasn't as strong as Burn One Down last week, but there wasn't much between them and he is just getting better and better.
“It's his third group 1 and he probably should have won [the Group 1 Galaxy] in Perth, but he got one tonight.”
Trip To Eden, a son of Solve The Puzzle and Key To Eden, has now won 15 of his 38 starts, with his prize money earnings in excess of $210,000.