Yozo Bale On Target For Wagga Cup Defence

YOZO Bale is on track to defend his Wagga Cup title when he lines up in the final on Friday night in a race dominated by the Grenfell kennel.

YOZO Bale is on track to defend his Wagga Cup title when he lines up in the final on Friday night in a race dominated by the Grenfell kennel and “Bale” runners.

Correy Grenfell said the Wagga Cup is a special race for he and wife Samantha and it was one the kennel targeted every year.

“When we first started getting dogs from Wheeler Kennels, we took four of them to Wagga and all four made the final,” said Correy. “We have been going back every year.”

FIELDS AND FORM WAGGA FRIDAY NIGHT

The great Yozo Bale (Fernando Bale-Purcell Bale), trained by Correy, ran 30.05 to win his heat on Friday night beating Veyda Bale and Titan Blazer.

Sam Grenfell won the other two heats with Nikoli Bale (Barcia Bale-Hae Allen) in a near track record 29.82 beating My Boy Rockin' and Quinlan Bale, and Xavien Bale (Fernando Bale-Ethia Allen) in 30.05 beating Kelsey Bale and Special Blend.

Correy is excited about the prospect of kennel favourite Yozo Bale getting the chance for a repeat Wagga Cup win.

“He is on his way to retirement and Brendon (Wheeler) already has plans to use him at stud,” said Correy. “He's been carrying a problem hock ever since he won the Bendigo Cup 18 months ago.

“Sam works on that dog's hock every single day.

“But, he is in career best form right now and he has already turned four.”

Correy says Yozo Bale was held up in running by kennelmate Yayda Bale and should have won much easier and in faster time.

“He's a front runner and will be very hard to beat in the final,” he said.

In 96 starts, Yozo Bale has won 32 and been placed 35 times for stakes of $384,000.

“If he had not had that hock problem, he would have doubled that prizemoney,” said Correy.

Yozo Bale is also the winner of the Group 2 Geelong Cup and Group 2 Ballarat Cup but has been second in a Group 1 Temlee, Group 2 Geelong Cup, Group 2 Warrnambool Cup, Group 2 Ballarat Cup and twice a Group finalist.

Xavien Bale took his record to 68 starts for 17 wins and 21 placings for $94,000 with his win and he was second to Yozo Bale in the Wagga Cup final last year. He has been a finalist in the Group 1 Silver Chief.

Nikoli Bale has now won 15 of his 66 starts and been placed 27 times for $100,000 and has also been a multiple Group performer.

Grenfell said immediate plans for most of the kennel stars would be to head to Queensland for the up-coming Winter Carnival Group races.

“The Brisbane Cup is worth half a million dollars and the Flying Amy Classic is worth $150,000,” said Correy.

“They sit nicely into our plans for all these dogs.”

The Grenfells obviously have a soft spot for Yozo Bale.

“He's a wonderful chaser but he has really tested our training ability to keep him up with the hock problem,” he said.

“But here he is chasing a second Wagga Cup and heading towards a Group 1 campaign. He's special and that's why Brendon wants to use him at stud.”

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