Gibbons strikes Straight Track gold

[Wandering Eyes]

After enduring a frustrating wait to break a feature race hoodoo, the floodgates have burst open for rising training star Daniel Gibbons over the past fortnight.

Gibbons, 33, has celebrated back-to-back feature victories at Healesville; firstly, preparing the quinella in the Victorian Straight Track Championship, with straight course revelation Quinlan Bale edging out litter brother Nicolson Bale.

That ‘family finish’ saw the classy Feral Franky x Ethla Allen siblings qualify for Saturday morning’s Group 3 National Straight Track Championship final (324m) at Richmond, in Sydney’s west.

“It took two and a half years to win our first rug and now we’ve won four in two weeks.”

Quinlan Bale then made it three from three up the straight with a brilliant display in The Arrow match race series last Sunday.

He upset reigning Healesville Cup champion Ferdinand Boy in his head-to-head duel, clocking a scorching 18.98sec.

“It took two and a half years to win our first rug and now we’ve won four in two weeks,” Avalon-based Gibbons laughed.

“They both get a rug for representing Victoria on Saturday too.

“Jan Wheeler kept saying to me that once we won one final they would come flying in and she was right!

WATCH: QUINLAN BALE (B4) edged out litter brother and kennelmate NICOLSON BALE (B2) to win the Victorian Straight Track Championship (350m) at Healesville on August 14.

“We were stoked to get first and second in the (Victorian) Straight Track final and then for Quinlan Bale to win The Arrow was incredible.

“He was an underdog; nobody gave him a chance. He didn’t only win it; he beat Ferdinand Boy in his match race and then when I saw the time come up on the board I was in shock!”

Gibbons will now take aim at his first Group trophy when Quinlan Bale and Nicolson Bale represent the Big V in Saturday morning’s $25,000 to-the-winner National Straight Track final (Race 11 at 11.20am).

Quinlan Bale (Box 4) is the more fancied of the pair with TAB at $5, while Nicolson Bale is a $9 chance.

NSW representative and former Victorian Mr. America (Box 2), a Healesville Cup and Horsham Cup finalist for Jason Thompson last year, is $2.80 favourite for home-track trainer Darren Sultana.

Mr. America was upset in the NSW State final by kennelmate Extra Specialism (Box 1), which is raced by his Victorian-based breeder Jay Ferguson.

“It’s a big ask,” Gibbons conceded.

“They’ve got to travel nine hours, it’s a different track, it’s on grass, and they’re racing against dogs that race there every week.

“I think Nicolson Bale is probably drawn better, because the dog in Box 8 (Milligan) will stay out of his way, but the dog (I’m Gifted Too) drawn outside Quinlan Bale goes hard to the rails, which could cause him some issues.

“Ability-wise, they’re on a par. If we trialled them against each other six times, they’d probably win three each. It just depends which one gets the start right.”

Click HERE for TAB’s latest National Straight Track Championship market

Quinlan Bale and Nicolson Bale are both newcomers to straight track racing, with Gibbons crediting wife Rebecca with the inspired change in tack.

“It was Bec’s idea,” he said.

“They’d never had a look at Healesville before, but they’ve got really good mid-race pace and were struggling to run out the ‘500’, so Bec said why don’t we give them a crack up the straight and see how they go.”

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