Ella Stamps Speed Star Claims

ELLA Enchanted thundered her way into calculations for Speed Star 595m on Sunday afternoon with a scorching 33.880 trial.

Her time slotted her into 2nd spot on the Speed Star 595m standings, just a tenth of second off Tornado Tears at the top.

Co-trainer Jamie Ennis was pleased with the run and is confident of improvement.

"This is the run she needed before next Sunday. To run the time she has is a bonus – she will be spot on for Speed Star and may improve two lengths on today's run," said Ennis.

Although sitting on top of both the 595m and 715m standings, all things point to Tornado Tears being nominated for the 595m – an ominous sign for those set to go against him. However, Ennis says that while he'd prefer Ella Enchanted not to be drawn against Tornado Tears, he did admit it may be the only way to defeat him on overall time.

"If she did draw him, I'd hope she could lead and it'd take a big effort to run her down. But, he is a champion."

Dyna Chancer rounded out the day's trials with a 29.300, improving to fifth spot on the 515m standings. He completed an amazing achievement of holding a place in the top 8 over all three distances – the first ever to do so – leaving connections with a difficult decision in coming days.

Earlier in the day, Crocmedia National Sprint champion West On Augie improved his him by 0.001 of a second to 29.429 and finish in 23rd position.

Orson Allen ran a sharp 29.374 but didn't improve on his existing time of 29.363, finishing 11th.

Others to trial were Dyna Forrest (29.569), Sanjiro (29.662), Chinookan Blue (29.717) and Plummy's Girl (42.331) over 715m.

The countdown is now on for next Sunday's Speed Star matches to be drawn. Nominations close on Wednesday at 11am with fields expected to be drawn shortly after.