Mary's Maitland 'Master' Class

4 ½ year old galloper Scary Mary will be chasing a 10th career victory when she lines up in Thursday afternoon's Ladbrokes Monthly Medal Final (400m) at Maitland.

Stepping out for just the eighth occasion in 2018 in last week's masters' grade heats, the Robert Green-trained Scary Mary was a dominant 23.12 heat winner from box eight, the daughter of High Earner and Myron's Angel landing her first Maitland victory in eight attempts.
Setting the time-standard for Thursday's $2,500 to-the-winner final is the Jamie Hawkins-trained Keona, who scooted over the 400 metres in a slick 22.58, staving off the closing Woodland's Drive by a narrow margin.
Winner of 12 races throughout her career, Keona exits box four for Thursday's finale where she tackles likely race favourite Almost Black, with John Chapman's grand sprinter claiming a 34th race victory when taking out his heat last week in a smart 22.59.
Slowly away, the son of Oaks Road showed his customary dash to set up a racing winning lead soon after, holding off Brett Brahn over the final stages to get in narrowly and progress to the final.
With some very handy prizemoney on the offing for Thursday's final for the ‘greybeards', the event is sure to be a spirited contest, with little separating the field performance wise in last week's qualifiers.
It is penciled in for race six of the card, set to get underway at 4.52pm.