American Monster (pictured) continued a dream run for young trainer Ashlee Terry after taking out a heat of the Group Two Ballarat Cup tonight.
With eight heats packed full with talent, Ashlee was well aware of task her star greyhound had on his hands.
“We were very hopeful he could go well; we knew Aussie Infrared wanted to use a bit of the track so we were hoping to sit behind it. It was always going to be hard against a dog like Shima Song but he was feeling great so that gave us confidence,” Ashlee explained
American Monster came up against recent Geelong Cup winner Shima Song who wasn’t able to make a run from box three. American Monster took full advantage of the inside draw after railing underneath Aussie Indrared, scoring by 2.34 lengths in a time of 25.066sec.
WATCH: American Monster make it through to his second country cup from box two.Just six starts ago, American Monster gained plenty of support after running a gallant second in the Group Two Shepparton Cup being narrowly beaten by Aston Bolero.
The Ballarat Cup is the richest Victorian country cup with $77,000 available to the winner of the Group Two feature.
“We never really look at the money side of it when we targeted the country cups. I couldn’t believe it when we saw there was $77,000 in the race, the money is excellent but to win a cup would mean more than the money for us,” Ashlee continued.
The 2016 Group Two Energis Ballarat Cup is shaping up to be a race to the first mark, and Ashlee believes that although American Monster isn’t the best beginner, he musters very fast to make up for it.
“He is also very strong now so he should be able to hold off the field if he is out in front.”
The local legend Zambora Brockie continued his unbeaten run at his home track in the fourth Ballarat Cup heat to secure his rug in a time of 25.126sec.
“Zambora brockie would be one of the fastest if not the fastest dog in Australia at the minute, now he’s made the final that’s going to be a tough ask for American Monster.”
“We hope American Monster can put himself in the race, he likes Ballarat he did a lot of his pre-training there so he knows the track well,” Ashlee said.
Lara trainer Brooke Ennis is the only trainer to secure two greyhounds in the 2016 Ballarat Cup field in Judicial Man and Zinzan Brooke.
2016 Ballarat Cup box draw
2016 Ballarat Cup Heats
