GERARD GUTHRIE
SHANTELLE Rose has developed a ‘giant-killing’ reputation over the course of her 82-start career and trainer/breeders Jeff and Sharon-Lee Chignell are hoping she can surprise a couple of more-fancied rivals in tomorrows Snow Queen final (525 metres) at The Meadows.
Shantelle Rose, a member of the Rosedale-based Chignells’ prolific Fernando Bale x Dash Of Rose litter, chalked up her 12th career victory and first from seven appearances at The Meadows with an impressive victory in her heat of the female-only series.
Sent out at $12.80, Shantelle Rose ran home strongly in the home straight to defeat Andrea Dailly’s favourite Gypsy Vista in 30.04sec.
“She’s no champion but she’s an honest, little trier,” Jeff Chignell said.
“Her heat win didn’t surprise us. It’s that old saying of females running against females and that made a difference.
“She is very timid and doesn’t like getting knocked around in her races, so taking on bigger dogs doesn’t help, but when she gets left alone and doesn’t get belted she’s capable of doing what she did last week.
“She has claimed some pretty big scalps at various times and Paul Hammon (race caller) has referred to her as the ‘giant killer’.”
Michelle Nolan’s G1 Hume Cup placegetter Zero Cool, which ran third in the 2020 Snow Queen final, was the quickest of the three heat winners, clocking 29.90sec.
The Daryl Holmes-trained Sweet Petit, winner of the Pink Diamond Princess series in June, claimed the other run-off in 30.07sec.
“Being realistic, I think the red (Zero Cool) is a certainty,” Chignell said.
“I just can’t see it getting beaten and I think even though Daryl Holmes’ dog has drawn box five it’s good enough to get across.
“They’ll probably run first and second and hopefully we might be able to sneak into third.
“Shantelle Rose has drawn reasonably close to the rails. I’d rather be drawn in box three than out in box seven.
“Dog racing can be a funny game and if she can begin like she did last week and the ‘red’ misses the start she might get to the front and be hard to run down.”
The Chignells are justifiably proud of Shantelle Rose’s Fernando Bale x Dash Of Rose litter, which also includes Annie Rose, first reserve for the Snow Queen after running third in Zero Cool’s heat.
The litter has thus far won 108 races and $337,010 in prizemoney, with the other standouts including Kingfisher Rose (18 wins), Nicholas Rose (16 wins) and William Rose (13 wins).
“It goes all the way back to Ginger Bread Man, our original stud dog,” Jeff explained.
“Dash Of Rose made a couple of Group finals (G1 Sapphire Crown and G3 Sir John Dillon Memorial). The Fernando Bale litter is her first and she’s also had litters to Bernardo, Beast Unleashed and we went back to Fernando Bale again.
“It’s been a very good litter – you can’t do any better than 12 out of 12!
“It’s been a very sound line too, with quite a few dogs having around 100 starts. Dash Of Rose had 88 starts herself.
“We rear our own dogs and know everything we put into them from when they’re babies. We pride ourselves on looking after them when they’re growing up and the plan is that then they’ll look after you in the future.
“The greyhounds haven’t made us millionaires, but we’ve been able to put food on the table for the last 40 years!”
