Country star Salad Dodger could ‘rocket’ to an amazing 11^th straight win in the $15,250 Ed Fountain Removals Summer Cup (510m) at the Group 1 Sale Cup fixture on Boxing Day.

He put the ‘dressing’ on a possible $10,000 collect in the final with a slick 28.60sec (Best) heat win last Friday. It was only 0.02sec off the 28.58sec track record, set by Minter Frost on September 17.

Salad Dodger formerly held Traralgon’s 450m track record, ‘tossing’ the clock in 24.48sec on January 11 this year. It was ‘boldly’ broken by Mr. Audacious (24.43sec) nine days later.

Master trainer Anthony Azzopardi has long known Salad Dodger is no ‘side dish’ in his all-powerful kennel.

The ultra-consistent speedster has raced on 57 occasions for 27 wins, nine seconds and seven thirds with $161,625 in prizemoney.

He’s also a six-time Group race finalist: G2 Bendigo Cup (2^nd), G3 Warragul St Leger (2^nd) and SA Derby (3^rd) – all in 2022; and G2 Shepparton Cup (4^th), G2 Traralgon Cup (6^th) and G2 Ballarat Cup (8^th) – all this year.

“He’s a good, hard chaser,” Azzopardi said. “And he’s got the ability to run record times.

“It’s very hard to get really good dogs like him… He just chases hard every race.”

“It’s very hard to get really good dogs like him. He just chases hard every race.”

Salad Dodger is an Aug ’20 son of Azzopardi’s 2019 G1 Melbourne Cup hero and 2020 G1 Temlee champ, Whiskey Riot.

“He’s got the family genes,” Azzopardi added. “And he’s just like the Whiskey Riot progeny, which have inherited the idiosyncrasies of their ‘old man’.

“They’re playful in the yards, and it’s also the way they sit on their beds. They sit on the edge and have their feet on the ground.”

Owned by Aiden Lee, 24, from Coonamble, NSW – Salad Dodger commenced his incredible 10-win streak in mid-June – albeit his racing stalled for four months due to sustaining a right shoulder tendon injury in a Southern Stars heat.

Salad Dodger intrinsically made his way to Azzopardi due to a long-time friendship with Lee’s father, Damian, for many years. An older brother, Jade, also worked for Azzopardi when he was based in Sydney.

WATCH: SALAD DODGER (B2) is enjoying his ‘salad days’, this time notching his 10^th win on the spin with a near-record 28.60sec Summer Cup heat win at Sale.

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Lee transferred Salad Dodger to Azzopardi after only three race starts.

“Aiden gave me a buzz and mentioned he had a dog with plenty of ability but couldn’t get the best out of him. He said, ‘he’s worth giving a go’.

“His first few trials didn’t set the world on fire, but he started blossoming after I put him with other dogs. He’s really competitive.”

Salad Dodger will exit from box one in the final and Azzopardi says, “the ‘red’ is where he wants to be”. (NB. He’s eight from 10 out of Box 1.)

“I couldn’t be happier with the draw, although you have to move off the rail a bit from box one here at the 510m starting point. I hope he can nail the jump like he can.”

Azzopardi also has some ‘unfinished business’ with Salad Dodger, declaring “he deserves to win a country cup”.

Salad Dodger snares a heat of this year’s G2 Traralgon Cup 📷 Clint Anderson

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