Tokyo Bird Flying High Ahead Of NZ Oaks

A month-long hiatus of Kiwi group races ends with a bang at Addington Raceway this Friday evening with three black type races.

A month-long hiatus of Kiwi group races ends with a bang at Addington Raceway this Friday evening.

Three Black type races, along with nine premier rated events will form what is an extremely attractive card with the action spread over four race distances.

The Group 1 $45,000 New Zealand Oaks highlights the evening's chasing action. Four 520m heats held last week finalized what is an intriguing field of bitches.

Taking time honours from those heats was the Craig Roberts prepared Tokyo Bird (pictured). The Australian bred daughter of Barcia Bale and Fearless Swan completed her heat assignment in 30.10s.

ADDINGTON FIELDS AND FORM

The former Victorian hit the Addington track flying back in March recording a pair of quick sub-30 second 520m wins. She also boldly chased home the low flying It's A Blaze when he delivered his recent slippery 29.42s Addington 520m track record.

Complete resurfacing of the Addington track followed with times understandably being a tad slower while the new surface settles in.

"She is a very fast greyhound, who can and must begin quickly from her poor draw (five). She can lead all-the-way if she does. She come through her heat run great," advised Roberts.

The Lisa Cole kennel qualified the entire field for the last edition of the NZ Oaks. On this occasion she provides three finalists spearheaded by her Group 1 winning 520m bitch at this venue Big Time Kaylee.

She gamely chased home Tokyo Bird for her 6.25 length heat second. Brendon Cole informs us that he believes the heat outing will have sharpened her for this assignment.

"Kaylee is normally a quick trapper so missing the jump terribly in her heat surprised us. She is suited to her draw (seven). She revelled in her work earlier this week. She has extreme early pace and we expect her to come out running."

The Group 1 $30,000 New Zealand St Leger field contains real depth where a post-race podium case can easily be built for all contenders.

Dave and Jean Fahey provided Opawa Star to return the quickest 520m time from the four heats contested when clocking 30.14s. He is required to step away from trap-five.

Northern conditioner Peter Ferguson trekked south with the talented Pedro Lee who handled his track debut task admirably when delivering his pace-making 30.17s win. Further improvement can be expected from this fella.   

Local trainer Matt Roberts produced Adobe Bro to clock 30.25s for his heat win, while it was the Lisa Cole prepared Power Boom who rounded up the heat victories with his 30.33s track debut effort.

The Cole kennels holds Power Boom is high regard with Brendon Cole telling us, "Power Boom is a seriously quick greyhound who will have benefited from his track debut heat outing. We expect him to make his presence felt."

The potent stayer Shaynee was massive in her heat mission for the Group 2 $15,000 Kingston Cup, when after nearly falling when getting tangled up in traffic, she stormed home to nail her 732m third placing.

"She came through her heat all good and is ready for the final," stated trainer Sam Lozell.

She will have to do everything right as exiting from the ace-trap will be the Craig Roberts mentored Uthor Bale who skipped through his heat in 43.34s. He dictated the pace throughout then and drawing the same trap suggests he's likely to adopt those same tactics.

"I expect him to strip a fitter greyhound after his heat gallop. He built an early buffer on his rivals and they were never going to catch him owing to the quick sectionals he ran. I expect him to be hard to run down if he does the same – he's all set to go," confirmed Roberts.

The other heat winner was the NZ debuting former West Australian stayer Hairpin Trigger who extended nicely to claim his 43.95s win for his new Kiwi trainers Dave and Jean Fahey. 

 

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