You quite often hear about how fast this young dog is, or how quick that young dog goes, but until they actually get to the racetrack and produce it, you don’t really know how good they are.
It was the case with Andy Lord’s Bandit Ned. He was fast - very fast - on the trial track, but when he came to town for the heats of the Ladbrokes Magic Maiden two weeks ago, he was all over the place, looking completely lost, but still winning and running 30.83s.
A week later he had improved out of sight and won again in his semi, this time running 29.76s.
Fast forward another week and the young dog made it three from three, this time running down the leader Cowgirl Ethics and winning the $25,000 final of the Maiden series in 30.07s.
“All three of his runs have been different, but he got there tonight,” kennel representative Nathan Tetley said.
“He came out a lot better tonight which put him right up there. He copped it on the bend but he kept going.
“It’s a big confidence boost for the dog each run. He hadn’t seen any other dogs (in a field), now he has raced a lot of dogs and he’s showing the benefit of it.
“We knew he had ability from very early on.
“He has always trialed times close to track record, he would run times everywhere we have gone. He’s one of the quickest dogs I have ever seen actually.”
The three week series had brought together some very smart pups into the final and it would not have been a surprise to see any of the eight win.
David Smith’s unbeaten bitch Cowgirl Ethic speared from the boxes and led clearly on settling, clocking a very slick 5.34s to the first marker.
Bandit Ned got away well and was second to the post, but like Tetley said, he was checked going around the corner, but managed to ride the bump and go into second, four lengths behind the leader.
He gradually reeled in the leader and they swung for home together, before Ned got his head in front where it was needed and won by length with Jack Smith’s Irinka Molly running home strongly for third.
Favourite Springview Magic struck trouble on the first turn and ran a great race to grab fourth, while the previously unbeaten Lock Master was slowly away and received a checkered run early losing all winning chance before finishing sixth.
