Superstar sprinter Amron Boy put a frustrating fortnight behind him on Saturday night with a sensational near-record performance in the heats of the Group 1 Sportsbet Silver Chief (525m) at The Meadows.
Amron Boy, trained by Brooke Ennis, had been beaten by agonisingly narrow margins at his previous two starts at Sandown Park, in a G1 Melbourne Cup heat (half-head by Titan Blazer) and the Sportsbet Showdown ‘match race’ against Wow She’s Fast (head).
But the Victorian powerhouse will now take aim at an overdue feature race breakthrough in next Saturday’s $100,000 to-the-winner Silver Chief Final – Victorian greyhound racing’s Derby – after a scintillating 29.45sec heat victory.
WATCH: AMRON BOY (B8) justified his favouritism for the G1 Silver Chief with an electrifying heat victory on Saturday night, scoring by a dozen lengths in a near-record 29.448sec.
Amron Boy was Sportsbet’s ‘All In’ Silver Chief favourite at $5 and the son of Zambora Brockie stifled betting on the fifth of eight ‘must win’ heats, starting at $1.20 from box eight.
The writing was on the wall when Amron Boy found the fence in second place rounding the first turn.
After railing to the lead in the back straight, the long odds-on elect careered away, scoring by 12 lengths in Best Of Night time, only a length outside Allen Deed’s track record of 29.376sec, established in January 2015.
It was Amron Boy’s 12th win from 30 starts and sixth from 11 at The Meadows.
Amron Boy was the second leg of an ‘Amron’ heat double for Brooke Ennis, who trained 2019 Silver Chief winner Barooga Brett, after litter brother Amron Dan took out the opening heat in 30.19sec.
Ennis will be hoping it’s a case of third time lucky at G1 level for Amron Boy, which finished unplaced in the Topgun and Maturity Classic, both races also held at The Meadows.
As impressive as Amron Boy was, he barely shaded boom prospect Rejuvenate for qualifying honours.
Earlier in the night, Rejuvenate, trained by breeder Ian Brown, and raced by son Paul, announced his arrival in the big time with a stunning city debut, posting a scorching 29.47sec in heat two.
A hulking 38-kilogram son of Hooked On Scotch that only turned two on November 24, Rejuvenate has now won 10 of his 12 starts (with two seconds) and his last six in succession, highlighted by the G3 Northern Districts Cup Final at Shepparton.
By far the two fastest heat winners, Rejuvenate and Amron Boy later drew alongside each other for next Saturday’s final in boxes two and three respectively.
GROUP 1 SILVER CHIEF HEAT WINNERS
(fastest to slowest)
29.45sec Amron Boy
29.47sec Rejuvenate
29.83sec Scofflaw
29.83sec Triumph
29.86sec Euler Bale
29.92sec False Confidence
30.06sec Landyn Bale
30.19sec Amron Dan
Yachi Bale wasn’t able to repeat his Melbourne Cup-winning heroics from one week earlier, finishing fourth to another ‘Bale’ in Euler Bale, trained by Deb Coleman, which ran 29.86sec to claim his sixth win from nine starts.
Mark Delbridge received some consolation for Yachi Bale’s elimination with the victory of Landyn Bale (30.06sec).
Champion trainer Jason Thompson will take aim at a sixth Silver Chief success with Triumph, another son of Zambora Brockie, which posted the equal third quickest heat time of 29.83sec, with Jeff Britton’s Scofflaw.
Thompson’s remarkable Silver Chief record follows victories with Light Of Fire (1994), Awesome Assassin (1996), Ben’s Fury (2005), Fedex (2009) and Godsend (2012), while wife Seona prepared 2018 winner Out Of Range.
Photos by Clint Anderson
