There were no ‘twists and turns’ for tyro Zigzag Cabang in the Healesville Puppy Championship (350m) on Sunday.
Bred, trained and owned by Toolleen’s Greg Berry, Zigzag Cabang went ‘straight as a die’ to claim a $5000 first prize plus $1000 breeder’s bonus.
Exiting box one, Zigzag Cabang ($3.90) displayed great acceleration in defeating Barista Chick ($3.50EF) by 1.8L, with Moon Over Mexico ($16.00) a further 0.45L away third in 19.09sec (Best).
Zigzag Cabang – a 21-month-old son of Beast Unleashed x Stars And Lights –notched his sixth win from 12 starts. It followed some smart short course wins at Horsham and Shepparton last month.
WATCH: Zigzag Cabang (1) showed a remarkable turn of mid-race speed in the Healesville Puppy Championship Final.
Berry also received some consolation for Zigzag Cabang ‘coming off’ the heels of Mania in the Northern Districts Cup, which effectively put him out of contention in the Group 3 event on October 30.
“He’s gone super today,” a delighted Berry said.
“I’ve got the litter of eight (five male, 3 female) and some have been slow coming on, but I have another good one called Money Owes which has had nine starts for four wins and four seconds. He’s a good 500-metre dog.”
Berry now intends on giving his young litter a well-earned rest.
“They’ll spell now, these dogs; they’ll go out for probably three weeks to a month,” he said. “They’re only 21 months old, so only babies. I’ll look after them now and get an extra couple of months out of them later on.”
Berry added that winning a race such as the Healesville Puppy Championship was satisfaction for “all the hard work that goes into it”.
“You can appreciate the money at the end of the day, and it helps you to breed on and feed them good tucker.”
Berry selected Beast Unleashed as the ‘beau’ for Stars And Lights who won 11 races from 56 starts and was part of a top litter.
“The rest of her litter have been super. I think they’ve won 130 races in total, including Lance Link who won 32 races,” he said.
“He (Beast Unleashed) is only a new sire. A friend of mine said ‘you should go to him, it’s a good line’.”
Beast Unleashed won 10 races from only 15 starts, including the G2 Launching Pad and G2 Gosford Gold Cup – both in 2018. He was also a G1 Peter Mosman Classic finalist in that year.
