Zipping Kansas smashes Bulli’s 590m track record
At last night's Bulli greyhound race meeting, Zipping Kansas put Australia's staying ranks on notice ahead of the Sandown Cup with a blistering run to smash the Bulli 590m track record.
Starting a prohibitively short $1.04 favourite with greyhound bookmakers, the Jason Magri-trained fawn dog used box one to overcome a tardy getaway before virtually solo trialling the rest of the race to win by 15.25 lengths in 32.55. The run wiped 0.4 seconds off the previous record of 32.95 set by Trunkey Bill in January 2022.
The win was Zipping Kansas' fourth win in a row, coming off successive victories at Richmond, Wentworth Park, Sandown Park and now Bulli.
Bred and owned by the Hallinan family, Zipping Kansas has now won 14 races from 22 starts with a further four places.
The best may still be yet to come from the 33kg son of Superior Panama and Zipping Katelyn having only just turned two-and-a-half years of age and not set to turn three until August 2022.
The Bulli track record run followed a debut effort at Sandown Park track where Zipping Kansas became the sixth fastest greyhound in history over the 715m trip at his first look at the track running 41.27.
The greyhound was having his first start outside New South Wales to “have a look” at the Victorian metro circuit ahead of the Group 1 Sandown Cup. The 2022 Sandown Cup heats are set to be run on Thursday May 12th, with the final on Thursday May 19th over 715m.
The track record effort will come as no surprise to the Hallinan's. Cameron Hallinan is on record as having a big opinion of the dog saying “I know it's a big call but he could be the fastest one we've ever produced”.
“We knew very early on that he was special and anywhere he's trialled over any distance he's broken records or ran right up to them.”
Connections would be right to be confident ahead of the Sandown Cup with the winner of just short of $100,000 having already proven himself at group level racing.
In December 2021 Zipping Kansas comfortably won the Group 3 Christmas Gift. The series was run as four head-to-head match races with overall winner determined by times. Zipping Kansas ran three lengths quicker than any other greyhound clocking 29.47 to easily win the $25,000-to-the-winner series.
His only other group race final start resulted in a second behind Bandit Ned in the Group 1 Vic Peters Classic final in October 2021 after coming out of the boxes a clear last.
Zipping Kansas Set New Bulli 590m Track Record
Zipping Kansas (Superior Panama x Zipping Katelyn) has just stripped almost 7 lengths off the Bulli 590m track record running 32.55 😱
Previous record 32.95 held by Trunkey Bill set in January 2022 pic.twitter.com/cyHPvFuM6W
— Greyhound Racing (@GreyhoundRacing) March 22, 2022