Midnight Starlet announced herself as a genuine contender for the Million Dollar Chase’s $1 million prize on Friday night when breaking the Dawson Park track record in scintillating fashion.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Despite running fifth in the prelude event a week prior, there was plenty of focus on the David Pringle-trained stayer on Friday night after she drew box one for the Million Dollar Chase Regional Final (516m).
She made the most of the favourable draw, getting away well before absolutely blitzing the field and winning in a time of 27.27 seconds.
That was three hundredths of a second better than the time of Group 1 runner Brad Hill Billy back in April of 2016.
David Pringle wasn’t at the track but his mother Rose was on hand to look after Midnight Starlet at Dubbo and she had no doubt they would have been celebrating back in Clergate.
“I reckon they would have lifted the roof off,” she laughed, before speaking about how much work the Pringle team does.
“There’s a lot of work. It’s 24/7 more or less so someone has got to be there (at home) all the time.”
While few expected to see a track record broken, the result went to script in one way as the ($2) finished first, four-and-a-quarter-lengths ahead of Raymond Smith’s Little Digger ($2.10).
Little Digger, who had not lost in five starts at Dubbo prior to Friday, produced an extremely tough run and powered through the field after struggling to find space early on after jumping from box eight.
Cliff Keeping ($7.80) was a gallant third.
Midnight Starlet and Little Digger will now represent Dubbo in the Million Dollar Chase semi-finals at Wentworth Park on Friday, October 12.
There will be eight semi-finals that night with the winner of each going through to the inaugural final, which offers $1 million to the winner.
“We thought she might go about 29.4 (seconds) so this is good,” Pringle said after the win.
“She was boxed to perfection and the two wasn’t there (after a scratching) so that helped too.
“Every race you think you can win something normally goes wrong. But I don’t get too excited. It’s just great to see her go around, stay safe and see all the hard work pay off.”
Midnight Starlet is owned by Danielle Pringle, the wife of David, and is currently back in NSW after a stint in Victoria with trainer Seona Thompson.
Rose Pringle confirmed the talented bitch will be headed back south again in the near future but she will still definitely take her place in the semi-finals.
Six regional finals from around the state have now been completed.
More will be held at Temora, Grafton and Nowra in the coming weeks before the regional dogs and their metropolitan counterparts do battle in the semi-finals at Wentworth Park.