Victoria’s leading trainer Andrea Dailly made a ‘clean sweep’ of the G3 Cranbourne Classic heats (520m) this afternoon.
Anakie-based Dailly snared all three heats, led by Australia’s sprint queen Qwara Bale.
Contesting Heat 3, Qwara Bale ($1.80F) led from go-to-whoa before holding off a late rally by Hill Top Jack ($3.40) by 0.9L in a flying 29.90sec.
Lala Ivory ($15.10), also trained by Dailly, was third only 2L from her kennelmate. She also qualified for next week’s final, giving Dailly a four-pronged challenge in the $25,000 to-the-winner event.
Qwara Bale – winner of the G1 Sapphire Crown, G1 Maturity Classic and G2 Warrnambool Cup – recorded her 20th win from 34 starts.
Lil Dickie Oaks winner Lala Kiwi got the Dailly juggernaut rolling, upstaging ‘next big thing’ Koblenz in Heat 1.
In fact, she turned the tables on Koblenz who defeated her in the Pink Diamond Rookie Sprinter final at Bendigo. (Lala Kiwi was fourth in the race.)
Lala Kiwi ($5.20) notched her 10th win from 24 starts. She accounted for Koblenz ($1.90F) – who had won 12 of his past 15 starts – by 3.3L in a smart 30.04sec.