REIGNING national distance champion Jarvis Bale scored a thrilling victory in his heat of the $29,000 group 3 Lizrene Classic at Sandown Park last Thursday night.
Jarvis Bale, who defeated Reign Over Me in the final stride and is a recent addition to the powerful Darren McDonald kennels, chased down the leader in the back straight to win by a nose in 42.33 seconds.
Next week's final will be Jarvis Bale's 21st group race appearance and seventh in 14 starts in 2010. Though a model of consistency at group race level, Jarvis Bale has won just two of his finals but has been placed in nine more.
In other heats, Robert Britton's rising star Symmetry, proved too good, winning in a slick 42.15 seconds.
A winner of seven of his first nine starts, Symmetry started slowly in his Sandown Park debut, but soon found the lead, defeating former Western Australian contender Best Of Times by 2? lengths, with New South Wales raider Blue Lorian a further 1? lengths away.
The final will be run on Thursday night with $20,000 prizemoney up for grabs.
The group 3 Macro Meats Lizrene Classic is the final tune-up for Australia's richest race for stayers, the $143,000 group 1 Radio Sport 927 Sandown Cup, the final of which is to be run Thursday, May 13.
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