From the Manawatu Raceway to Melbourne’s Sandown Park – that’s the planned pathway for Monday’s stylish $6,245 Manawatu Cup winner Bigtime Paddy.
Pictured: Handler Sam Lozell with Monday’s Manawatu Cup winner Bigtime Paddy (pic Georgie Clark)
The Lisa Cole trained Bigtime Paddy is booked to fly across the Tasman to Melbourne on Thursday where he will go into the John Galea kennels. His assignment over there is to contest a heat of the world’s richest greyhound race, the A$600,000 TAB Melbourne Cup.
He earned his prized November 17 515m heat field position via his stylish recent pace making win in the Group 1 Waterloo Cup at the Manukau Stadium.
Again it was his ability to race on the pace that saw Bigtime Paddy prevailing in his Manawatu Cup victory. He jumped cleanly from trap three and after a brief paw wrestle he led a highly competitive, even field into the big sweeping Manawatu Raceway bend.
There was a degree of jostling in behind him, which Bigtime Paddy capitalized on to build a winning break when rounding the turn. He maintained a strong gallop during the run home to take out the feature 457m event by a length margin, clocking 26.10s.
It was the pair of Karen Walsh trained runners who occupied the minor sides of the post race podium. Thrilling Raider jumped from the unsuitable trap eight (for him) which saw him applying some pressure on a couple of inside runners on the turn. He secured his favoured rails passage turning in where he firmly remained when chasing home Bigtime Paddy.
Timmy Trumpet produced his customary brave effort when he was sighted improving his field position out wide when racing around the turn. From there he pressed on stoutly to claim third four lengths behind his kennelmate and 4.75 lengths in advance of the fourth placed Bigtime Flyer.
It was a hugely successful afternoon for the Cole team as Bigtime Paddy was one of nine winners prepared by them on the 15 race card. It also saw the Bigtime kennels quickly pushing their tally of winners for the current season out to 202 winners.
“Paddy did everything right when sitting on the early pace then pushing clear. He’s a tough dog to run down once he’s in the race lead. We backed off him a bit after the Waterloo Cup so last week’s lead in 457m race topped him off nicely.
“We decided to just send Paddy over to Melbourne and if he travels okay John will probably trial him at Sandown this weekend. We are looking at aiming Allegro Gun, Bigtime Opal, Bigtime Crackem and Bigtime Jane towards the Galaxy Sprint heats,” suggested Brendon Cole.
Bigtime Paddy now crosses the Tasman as the winner of 15 races. He has placed on a further 12 occasions which sees his career stake earnings sitting at $59,609 from his 34 race day outings.
Thrilling Raider (pink) and Timmy Trumpet flanking the Manawatu Cup winner Bigtime Paddy (pic Georgie Clark); Bigtime Paddy and connections after his Waterloo Cup victory, which secured him his place in a Melbourne Cup heat
By Peter Fenemor
