McDonald Hits Sandown Park For Six

YOUNG Pearcedale trainer Ned McDonald Sandown Park winning streak improved to six following his first city double on Thursday night.

Fractured kicked the night off in the best possible fashion when the well supported favourite railed strongly to win race two in 29.253 – the fastest time of the night – while Zipping Sultan (above) completed the double by taking out the Free For All in 29.365.

"It's a thrill. I'm just happy the dogs are going well at the moment," said McDonald.

"We had a good run a little while back then ran into some niggling injuries, but they've all come back really well so hopefully we can keep the run it going for as long as we can."

McDonald has a team of just six greyhounds in work making his recent run of success all the more remarkable.

Zipping Sultan's victory was his 10th career victory at the track, all coming from his last 16 starters at the venue. As impressive as that strike rate is, the manner of the victories has been equally so – their average winning time of 29.423 is faster than the average Free For All winning time in 2020 – 29.429.

"It's a small team but it keeps me busy and I can put 100% into all of them. It'll keep me busy for the next few years I reckon."

Zipping Sultan has now won 10 of his 18 career starts including his last three, and McDonald will now set him for the club's first feature race of 2021, the Australian Sprint on 21 January.

Fractured also won his third race in a row and is now likely to step up in distance.

"He hasn't got the pace that some of the other dogs show. He's a grade 4 at Sandown now so he's going to come up against dogs that can run low 5's (to the first split) and he can't match that – he can go 5.15 at best – so I will probably go to 600m with him."

Pawnote: 20 year old Ned McDonald's first city double came just a week after 18 year old Kayla Cottrell registered her first city double at the same venue.