Freakish Feral Poised For Paws Of Thunder Glory

FERAL Franky will crash through $500,000 in prize money earnings with victory in Friday night’s Group 1 Paws Of Thunder Final at Wentworth Park.

FERAL Franky will crash through $500,000 in prize money earnings with victory in Friday night's Group 1 Ladbrokes Paws Of Thunder Final (520m) at Wentworth Park.

And on the strength of his come from behind heat victory on Saturday night, the son of Collision and Solar Pak looks perfectly poised to add another Wentworth Park group 1 to his bulging resume.

Make no mistake, his heat win at the weekend was something to behold.

Getting into a stalking position down the back straight, The Feral was stopped in his tracks going past the 720m boxes, all but dashing his prospects of qualifying for this week's group 1 finale.

But doing what champions do, Feral Franky picked himself up off the canvas to not only secure a final berth, but also had the audacity to find a way to launch late for a length victory in 29.91.

Yes, his winning time was the slowest of the four qualifiers, but the clock doesn't show what our eyes did, and off that, it's no surprise the TAB has installed Feral Franky a warm $1.90 favourite for Friday night's $75,000 to-the-winner decider.

"He just makes me smile," quipped his trainer Jack Smith straight after the race.

"He's exciting to watch; it doesn't matter if he wins or loses … but I definitely smile more when he wins. I didn't know whether he'd won or not tonight but when I heard the crowd roar I'd assumed he did.

"He just likes making it exciting, I wish he'd do it a bit easier sometimes."

And while Smith may hope that Feral Franky does it a bit easier in his races from time-to-time – for us racing fans – he can keep doing what he's doing for as long he likes.

On a night of fantastic racing, top Victorian trainer Jeff Britton claimed the opening two Paws Of Thunder heats on Saturday night courtesy of Western Envoy and Oakvale Beauty.

Melbourne Cup runner-up Western Envoy scored in the first heat running 29.81, the Ballarat Cup winner downing Connie's Boy by 2 ¼ lengths.

The second heat went the way of Oakvale Beauty for Britton in a best of night 29.64, the Group 2 Laurels winner, which also made the Melbourne Cup Final, ultra-impressive defeating Start A Riot by 2 ½ lengths.

The third heat was annexed by King Cratos for in-form trainer Jason Magri, defeating 2019 Paws Of Thunder winner Buck's Future by 4 ½ lengths in 29.85.

Friday night's final shapes up as an absolute blockbuster.

But there's no doubt as to who the star of the show will be as ‘The Feral' eyes off career victory number 25.

In 18 Wentworth Park starts he boasts 10 wins and seven placings, the only blot on the copy book when he fell in a semi-final of the Million Dollar Chase last October.

For the record he dusted himself off and won seven days later. Something that is of no real surprise when you have a heart as big as yourself.

Box draw for the Paws Of Thunder is :1 Feral Franky 2 Connie's Boy 3 Western Envoy 4 Start A Riot 5 Buck's Future 6 Oakvale Beauty 7 Caishen 8 King Cratos with reserves Nangar Diva and Cawborne Marty.

Summer Distance Plate draw is: 1 Blazing Cartier 2 Just Terms 3 Blue Summer Sky 4 Weblec Eagle 5 True Detective 6 Show Me Confetti 7 Blue Moon Rising 8 China O'Brien and reserves Boom Down and Dreamin' Is Free.

 

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