“Our Ozzie Salute advances to Winter Sprint Final”
Four heats of the Winter Sprint were contested tonight over 400m with first and second from each progressing to next Friday’s Final. Notable winners over the years have been Black Watch (2005), Top Fuel (2009), Buddy Be Cool (2012), Optical (2019), Bones McCoy (2022) and Sunset Ali (2025). Our Ozzie Salute won his heat brilliantly tonight, bursting to the lead in the middle stages before winning by three lengths in a brisk 22.32. The son of Aussie Infrared took his career earnings to an impressive $287,000 and will prove extremely hard to hold out in the final. His mother Fabs Gem was a marvelous chaser who was a winner of 21 races including the 2020 Birthday Cup. The other three heats were won by Elite Deluxe (in 22.53), Farmer Russell (in 22.42) and Iconic Guess (in 22.30). The box draw for the final next Friday :
- RIGATONI MONELLI
- FARMER RUSSELL
- ICONIC GUESS
- ELITE DELUXE
- MOO MOVE
- BOLT OF FUN
- ANOTHER JIMMY
- OUR OZZIE SALUTE
- ASTON WALKER
- BERN WEST BOLTER
HOUNDS TO FOLLOW :
Race 1 Number 6 SPIDER HULK : Improved sharply to run a solid second behind Blue Lace.
Race 4 Number 7 JUST A DUKE : Lost narrowly to the gifted Yunderup Pockets and will win again soon.
Ryan Levitzke (commentator)