Courtesy of thedogs.com.au

10/01/11

Monday night’s running of the Group Two Cyril Rowe Gold Plate final at Bulli looks set to be a real thriller, with eight hugely talented types set to face the starter at the popular South Coast circuit.

Last Monday’s heat night was somewhat of a ‘Bale-athon’, with the famous ‘Bale’ greyhounds asserting their dominance on the time honoured series, qualifying a staggering six of the eight finalists for tonight’s $25,000-to-the-winner feature.

Champion Victorian trainer Graeme Bate and leviathan owner Paul Wheeler won three of the four heats with Gripen Bale, Greta Bale (pictured with black rug) and Stanford Bale, while the regally named Radley Bale was the only one to let the team down from a clean sweep of the qualifiers, just failing to gun down Casino Fun by the barest possible margin.

“It was a great way to start the year,” said Bate, a Hall of Fame inductee, after the heats.

“Greta Bale should be favourite off what she’s done recently, but I think Radley Bale will give it a big shake, it was the first time he had seen the joint so I’m expecting big improvement and if he can begin he’s going to be very hard to beat.

“He’s fully recovered from his injury and I’d love to see him win because he’s always been lovely dog.

“But Stanford Bale is a terrific dog as well and we all know how good Gripen Bale is, so I’ve got a great chance with both quality and quantity.

“I actually didn’t expect to get so many dogs through; it has left me without a major gun for the Devonport Cup heats tomorrow (Tuesday).”

With some rather ominous weather looking as if it may play a part at Monday night’s meeting, it may well be survival of the fittest over the concluding stages of the 472m.

The box draw has made for a rather intriguing battle with the speed likely to come from the ever-improving Casino Fun in box two, and Greta Bale from the extreme outside draw.

Whether Greta Bale, the recent Group Two Ballarat Cup winner, can cross Casino Fun early, will play a major part in proceedings, and ultimately who takes home the $25,000 winner’s prize.

The value runners of Monday night’s epic will be Bate’s pairing of Stanford Bale and Gripen Bale.

Both chasers are extremely accomplished sprinters and look as though they’ll be there to pounce moving through the first turn if things go their way.
Whichever way you look at it, the race has the ingredients to be a most fascinating finale, and a fitting one, given some of the chasers that have tasted success in this race, particularly in more recent times.

Make sure you tune in at 9.30pm tonight for what should be a cracking spectacle.

The box draw for Monday night’s Group Two Cyril Rowe Gold Pate is: 1 Riddle Bale, 2 Casino Fun, 3 Stanford Bale, 4 Gripen Bale, 5 Windsor Bale, 6 Shadow King, 7 Radley Bale, 8 Greta Bale.