KENNERSON Park played host to its 10th edition of the Orange Cup (520m) on Monday night and it was appropriately taken out by Cudal trainer Dennis Barnes with favourite All Too Fancy.
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All Too Fancy ($2.20) and Barnes took out their home cup thanks to strong comeback effort to see off Tribal Beat ($20.70) by six lengths and Tricky Summah ($5.50) by a further length.
It’s the third win in a row for the Larkhill Jo bitch and the 13th victory in what has been a very consistent career.
She had to fight for it after three runners got ahead of her before the first turn.
A line of dogs came together on the turn after an even start, but it was Tribal Beat, Tricky Summah and All Too Fancy who avoided the trouble.
Initial front-runner Burr Angel was the loser out of the opening turn and got squeezed out from the leading group.
Onto the back straight Tribal Beat had gained two lengths on Tricky Summah and All Too Fancy.
The final turn saw Tribal Beat start to slow and All Too Fancy showed she had plenty in reserve as she flashed past, continuing to put distance back to the rest of the field over the final 50m.
Her time of 29.84 seconds was just three hundredths of a second off her best time at the distance, set at Wentworth Park in September.
“She held her position well at the first corner and then her last sector was one of the quickest that I’ve seen on the track. At the turn the two went left into the one and that gave her in three the dream run through,” Bathurst racing manager Jason Lyne said.
“No one could hold her out. She ran a 10.46 over the last sector, and usually you would say running a 10.8 is quick.
“They’re looking to send her to the Bathurst Cup next month after they were considering retiring her a few starts back. She’s going to make a very valuable brood bitch.”
The night’s other feature race was the Julie Healey Memorial Final (450m) which saw Secret Bet ($14.20) take a dominant and surprise win for Blayney’s Keith Selten.
A superb jump from box five played a key role in handing Secret Bet an 11.75-length margin back to favourite Loving The Mix ($3.20). My Terms ($3.90) was a further two-and-a-quarter lengths back in third.
Selten’s two-year-old dog bolted from the box to put almost five lengths back to Up High just after coming out of the first turn.
My Terms went by Up High into the home turn, but the margin out to Secret Bet continued to grow.
Loving The Mix recovered well from a poor start to run second, but there was no stopping Secret Bet.
The win came off the back of a sharp 15.16-second first sectional.
His winning 25.79 time was .72 of a second better than what he produced in the heat.
Selten was thrilled to take out the race for the owners who have had their share of family tragedy over the past 24 months.
“It was a big thrill but it was more for the family involved than it was for myself. The owner Steve Morgan and his family have gone through a lot of bad luck and some rough times over the last couple of years, so to see the way the dog went was remarkable,” he said.
“For them it was angels from above watching on.
“My son and daughter have been a big help with our dogs, and I don’t think we could have done this without them. They do so much. To have the win in the Healey Memorial is the icing on the cake.”