With seven runners, ‘Team Dailly’ has a very strong numerical presence in Thursday night’s G2 McKenna Memorial heats (595m) at Sandown Park.
However, co-trainer Tom Dailly fears quantity may not be enough to make a dent in Mark Delbridge’s middle distance juggernaut, spearheaded by defending McKenna Memorial champion Christo Bale and recent G1 Sandown Cup winner Zipping Rambo.
“They’re the two class 600m dogs going around at the moment and they’ll be extremely hard to beat,” Dailly said.
The Dailly kennel’s best chance of making an impact looks to be in the final heat – where, not surprisingly, there’s no Christo Bale or Zipping Rambo to contend with.
Aston Cade (Box 2), a G2 Horsham Cup finalist over 485m in March, is $5.50 in TAB’s market and lightly raced Gypsy Wyong (Box 6), which has won five from eight and was an impressive winner at her 595m debut last Thursday, is at $6.50.
Shima Glow is a $6 chance from box one in the first of three heats, where Delbridge duo Zipping Rambo (Box 4) at $2.50 and Graclyn Bale (Box 2) at $3.40 head betting.
Team Dailly’s other heat contenders are all at double figure odds and Tom Dailly was hopeful rather than confident when providing a realistic assessment of their prospects.
WATCH: Aston Cade (4) clocks a flying 29.73sec over 525m at The Meadows on June 12.
Heat 1
Shima Glow (Box 1): “She’s not a bad dog and I thought she might as well have a crack at the better race and prizemoney than just going around in a normal 595m.”
Aratuza Bale (Box 7): “She likes the rail, so we’ll just have to see what happens from out there.”
Heat 2
Radek Bale (Box 3): “He can run but is a bit hit and miss.”
Drako Bale (Box 4): “He ran a good race at Sandown last week, so like a few of the others I decided to put him in and see how he goes.”
Zipping Ticket (Box 8): “She’s a handy dog and hopefully drawn out in the ‘pink’ she could get a clear run. Mepunga Maggie in box seven might give her a drag across but Christo Bale is going to be very hard to beat in that heat.”
Heat 3
Aston Cade (Box 2): “Drawing box two doesn’t really suit him because he wants off the track. His last couple of runs have been better than what he’d been doing previously.”
Gypsy Wyong (Box 6): “I’m hoping she can run ‘700’ down the track and she went good winning her first 595m at Sandown last week so I thought to myself I might as well give her a crack at this and if she makes it through to the final that’ll be a bonus.”
Aston Cade and Shima Glow are the shortest of the Dailly contingent in ‘All In’ betting, both at $11.
