Lalina Emulating Mother's Gold Rush

A sensational debut in Saturday's heats of the Jarrod Larkin Concreting Gold Rush Maiden (425m) has Lalina poised to emulate her mother, Nallak, which won the lucrative Bendigo feature in 2016.

In fact on that occasion, local trainer Dallas Massina, daughter of Bendigo GRC stalwart Noel Massina, quinella-ed the event with Nallak defeating Bakali, both daughters of Swift Fancy but from different dams.

Lalina is a member of Nallak's first mating, with super sire Barcia Bale, whelped in March 2018, and she's the latest of a very exciting litter to hit the track, following on from Bareki (6 wins from 9 starts), Jannila (4 from 4), Arilla (3 from 6), Kanella (2 from 3) and Nangkari (1 from 3).

"We say that Lalina is the pick of the litter," said Dallas Massina.

"I think she's a bit better than her mother too. She's just brilliant early.

"We had Lalina ready for the Gold Rush when it was originally supposed to be held at Easter time and then when it was put off we were scratching our heads about what to do with her.

"Dad said to just put her in a maiden but I said something will come along and then when they decided to put the Gold Rush on again I thought we're back on here!"

It was no surprise considering her pedigree, strong local connections and box one that Lalina dominated betting on the second of five Gold Rush heats, starting at $1.50, and the debutante lived up to the quote.

Lalina did everything right as she fired out from the boxes and careered away to defeat runner-up Zipping Tiffany by 5.67 lengths in a scorching 23.73s, the second quickest heat performance behind the Michael Carter-trained Music Event, which clocked 23.62s.

"I didn't really want the red because the way they're doing it at the moment you go in the boxes first and you stay there for so long, which can be very hard for young dogs," Massina offered.

"But I trialled her the other day and let her sit in the boxes for a while trying to get her used to it.

"She can go quicker early – she gets down to record times early – and overall I'd say she's a 23.65s bitch."

Lalina will move from the rails to box six for Friday's $10,000 to-the-winner final, with fastest qualifier Music Event to exit four.

"Someone asked me what box I wanted and I said just give me an even number, so she's not in the boxes for so long," Massina said.

"Six should be okay because she doesn't crash straight to the fence. She's not desperate for the rail or the outside.

"Anything can happen with young dogs so it's hard to be confident but she's a faultless little beginner. She's not overly strong at this stage – she might get stronger as she gets older – so she's got to lead.

"It would be pretty amazing to win the race with the mother and her daughter."

Winning the Gold Rush for the second time wouldn't be the only good news Dallas is likely to receive this week, with Lalina's dam, Nallak, due to whelp her second litter to Raw Ability, a dual Group 1-winning son of Barcia Bale.

"She's got a bellyful and is due to drop tomorrow," she said on Sunday evening.

"Raw Ability is a son of Barcia Bale and I liked that he was such a good-chasing dog and a faultless beginner. Nallak was a faultless beginner too and I think that getting them on the bunny is half the battle."