Victorian News
Victoria's Hopes Rest With Smoke
28 February 2010
Smoken Up has the hopes of Victoria riding with him in the Inter Dominion Final
Victoria’s Watpac Inter Dominion Pacing Championship hopes rest with Smoken Up after the Lance Justice-trained gun was the only Garden Stater to qualify for next Sunday’s $1 million final at Menangle.
The Graeme Lang-trained Sammy Maguire, who ran third in last night’s second of heats at Newcastle, finished tied with Baileys Dream on 18 points, but lost out to the Kiwi in the ballot to fill the last spot.
The Benny Hill-trained gelding, a fourth placegetter last night, joins stablemate Monkey King, Blacks A Fake, Bondy, Washakie, Atomic Ark, Our Awesome Armbro, Smoken Up, Mr Feelgood and Changeover in the final.
Sammy Maguire is the first emergency with Be Good Johnny winning the ballot for the spot as second reserve.
Smoken Up sealed his spot with a costly second placing to Washakie last night. It followed a brave third from an awkward back-row draw in his opening qualifier at Harold Park.
The tough front-runner was sent out the $1.30 favourite from a better barrier (two) last night and while the race was made to order after a pedestrian 64.4-second first half of the last mile, he didn’t appear to handle the final bend.
An ingenious drive from John McCarthy saw Washakie open up a race-winning break at the 300m and while Smoken Up got going again in the straight he was 1.6m astern the Queenslander on the line.
Cincinnati Kid and Few Good Men were the other Victorians in that heat who could have sealed a final berth with victory but had to settle for fourth and fifth respectively.
The final quarter was covered in a blistering 26.4 seconds, which secured a 1:58.9 mile rate.
That was 0.8secs quicker than Bondy went on the way to victory over Be Good Johnny and Sammy Maguire in the second heat, but he did pull out a 26.2-second final split.
Tanabi Bromac went into that heat needing a top-two finish to make the final, but he raced three-back the pegs and could get no closer than fifth.
The latter two heats were easily the fastest of the night.
Monkey King went 1:56.2 in a third heat that contained longshot Victorian final contenders Pacific Charm (sixth) and I Am Sam (seventh), while Blacks A Fake readjusted the track record in the final qualifier.
Despite sitting in the death, the three-time Inter Dominion champion went 1:55.3, which included a 55.1-second final 800m, on his way to victory over Mr Feelgood, Pembrook Benny and Baileys Dream.
