Defeat Pays Well For Vocal And The General
They may have missed on out on the Perth Cup final, but General Destini and Vocal Enforcer have shown that it pays to bounce back, taking out the rich consolation events again put on by Greyhounds W.A.
With a prize pool of $37,500 the first consolation could almost be deemed a Group race in its own right, however it remains a great incentive for interstate trainers to hang around the western part of our nation.
This year the best of the beaten brigade included Wy Tung Tiger, Gable Drum, Off To Fenway and the eventual winner, General Destini. Drawing box six, the former Melbourne Cup winner had qualified for the race with an honourable second behind Grigorieva Bale – the eventual runner up of the main event. But with a run on the track under his belt, General Destini began much better, taking a sit behind Squashed Banana who flew out from the pink box. With the rest of the field jamming behind the leading duo, it left the race to be fought out by those two dogs quick enough to avoid the early carnage.
With both dogs chasing hard, Squashed Banana held a comfortable four or five length break over Emilio Rinaldi's visiting chaser off the back straight, with a sizeable gap back to the rest of the field.
Inch by inch the lead of Squashed Banana got whittled away, with General Destini gaining the upper hand in the run to the post, stopping the clock at 30.43; a time that happened to be nearly three lengths faster than Dyna Nalin went in the closely fought Cup final.
General Destini is a son of Where's Pedro and Greys Destini and now surpasses $180,000 in earnings over a 43 start, 15 win career.
In the second of two consolation events – this time worth $12,000 to the winner – veteran local chaser Vocal Enforcer took the honours for Andrew Mclaren in a great battle with Eric Campana's runner, Tremlett.
The result, that left all witnesses watching the semaphore board intensely after a very close photo, came about when Tremlett flew out of the cherry exit, opening the door for Vocal Enforcer drawn next door in two to get a gun run and set out chasing. Those two broke clear of the rest of their rivals, and when Vocal Enforcer railed up to take the lead off the back, the result looked to be known. However, Tremlett refused to wilt, and stuck with the challenge as long as he could. Staying within a head of each other for nearly 200 metres, the two dogs raced very tightly until Vocal Enforcer got the benefit of a good dive on the post to take the cash.
Former local, now South Aussie youngster Kalden Kurageous was the only other dog to put himself in the race with a solid third, finishing a couple of lengths behind the battling duo.
Vocal Enforcer continues to defy his age, with the son of Black Enforcer and She's Vocal turning four years old this month, and now taking his great record to 33 wins from 75 starts and $230,000 in the retirement fund.
Both consolation races were not only entertaining to watch but also proved to be good betting races. The concept of a consolation is a great way to ensure both the quality of racing, and the size of the betting pools remain respectable outside of the main event/s on the main night of racing.
While Tasmania use consolation events to a lesser extent, it is surprising that the metropolitan clubs on the eastern states don't dedicate more time and money in putting on such events for those reasons above, and it creates more of a ‘series' feel to an event rather than just one big race. Still it does seem to be the way of the industry to pack any extra money in to one race, rather than using innovation and spreading it around over several places.
For now however, Cannington remains dedicated to its consolation events and it is great to see two quality chasers run well for the huge crowd in attendance.