Patty's Classic Fernando Encore

DYNA Patty continued Fernando Bale's domination of Group 1 racing in 2018 at The Meadows last Saturday night when emulating her champion sire by winning the Maturity Classic.

Fernando Bale won the Maturity in 2015, one of his eight Group 1 triumphs, and Dyna Patty, his March '16 daughter by Unix Bale, followed in the champion sprinter-turned stud sensation's footsteps, as the Dailly kennel celebrated their second Maturity victory in the last four years.

Dyna Patty set the qualifying standard in both the heat and semi-final rounds of the age-restricted Maturity, clocking 29.73 and 29.80 respectively, both best of night performances, and after drawing box one for the $100,000 to-the-winner final she started $2.50 favourite.

Tritt Tritt, one of two finalists prepared by Brooke Ennis, was the $4.80 second elect from box two, while another exciting Wheeler-bred youngster in Orson Allen, trained by Correy Grenfell, also had plenty of admirers, starting at $6.70 from an awkward draw in six.

While Team Dailly admitted some concerns about the rails alley, Dyna Patty came out running but was outpaced by Chief's Empire ($6.40) in the run to the first turn.

Dyna Patty took over down the back as Orson Allen moved into second and that was the way they stayed as Dyna Patty kept going strongly in the home straight to score by 2.26 lengths in 29.73, her 11th win from 22 starts.

"She's not a bad little bitch," co-trainer Tom Dailly said understatedly.

"She's very consistent with her times. She usually runs in the 29.80s around The Meadows and she was down into the 29.70s on Saturday.

"She doesn't have a brilliant amount of pace so I thought she could have been in a bit of trouble from box one. But she stepped beautifully and when she was running second I thought that as long as she didn't get interfered with she would be very hard to beat.

"When she got to the outside and went around the leader (Chief's Empire) without getting checked I was very confident. She did a good job.

"She'll run further for sure but there's some nice sprint races coming up so we won't worry about that yet. She'll run 600m without a hassle but whether she would go any further I'm not sure."

It was a second Group success for Dyna Patty, following her victory in the Group 3 Bill Collins Speed Star match race series at Sandown Park in May, while she finished third in the Group 2 Launching Pad at just her fifth start and ran fourth in the Group 1 Sapphire Crown.

Seona Thompson's Poke The Bear was second to Dyna Patty in the Speed Star and they will once again do battle at Sandown on Thursday night in the second of four state National Sprint Championship heats, with Poke The Bear the $2.05 favourite from box one with bet365 and Dyna Patty the $3.20 second elect from the six alley.

The Dailly kennel will have three contenders in the National Sprint heats, with Australian Cup hero Hecton Bale, another of Fernando Bale's Group 1-winning progeny, lining up in the opening run-off and litter sister Lila Bale in the third qualifier.

"Dyna Patty and Hecton Bale would be on a par, although Hecton Bale hasn't been at the top of his game at his last few starts," Dailly explained.

"It's a step up for Dyna Patty but she's a smart race bitch and she can definitely run the time to be very competitive in these fields."

Dyna Patty has been so impressive in her relatively brief career that bet365 has installed her as $13 favourite to give Team Dailly a third Melbourne Cup triumph and go one better than her sire Fernando Bale, which finished runner-up to superstar kennelmate Dyna Double One in an epic battle in 2015.

"I think they're getting a bit carried away," Dailly laughed.
"The Melbourne Cup is still a long way away. I don't even know why they're thinking about it yet."

After masterminding Fernando Bale's magnificent career, the Daillys are deriving great pleasure from the phenomenal start to his stud career, which has seen the greyhound racing world's first millionaire stakes-winner's offspring remarkably win 10 of Australia's 20 Group 1 events in 2018.

"When Fernando Bale first started at stud I thought he might have been in a bit of trouble because a lot of people were potting his pups but then all of a sudden, before you could blink, they were winning everything under the sun," Dailly offered.

"It doesn't surprise me at all that he's throwing stayers too. There were some stayers in his litter and he would have won races over 600m as well but he didn't need to."