Halls hammer the clock with training double

By Isaac Murphy

The true arrival of Extra Malt and Double Malt occurred earlier this week. 

The pair are brother and sister, who are the progeny of Paw Licking and It Gets Better.

They stole the show for training couple Graham and Leanne Hall on Monday night at Albion Park, winning their races in 29.6 and 30.00 respectively.

The kennel has big plans for both of them.

The times were the two quickest of the night with Extra Malt an astonishing four tenths quicker than her brother.

Graham Hall said she had always been a step ahead.

“We’ve always thought the Extra Malt was capable of a time like that (29.6), she’s always trialled well above average and up until Monday night she hadn’t put the time on the board, now she has,” he said.

“When we first started trialling her, she went 30.03 over the 500m and ran home in 12.65, so we suspected there was something there, it’s just taken her a little while to find it.

“Even after eight starts she’s just doing everything a lot better, she’s out as quick as ever, consolidates down the back and is improving her run home each time out.”

Five wins from eight starts speaks to Extra Malt’s talent and she’s done it through adversity, as well.

“She won her maiden by eight lengths on debut at Albion Park and then drew the red for her Novice the next week, it was fair to say we were feeling pretty good about things but were humbled pretty quickly,” Hall said.

“She’d taken a toe nail off in the boxes, it wasn’t a shocking injury but can have a real effect on heir box manners and she just struggled her next couple of starts.

“She’d always been a natural jumper up to that point and fortunately once it healed up, she’s got back to pinging the lids.”

Hall is confident the bitch is in the habit of winning and running time, but as she knocks over more races, she’s going to have to learn how to overcome a field.

“She has five wins to her name and time on the board, the next thing we’ve go to work on is a bit of field sense, all of her wins have come when she’s jumped straight to the front which won’t always be the case when she gets up in grade,” he said.

“There’s been signs of smarts but she’s yet to quite nail it, Tough as Teak got up underneath her a couple of starts ago, she responded well and chased hard but didn’t quite have the engine to challenge from behind.

“Experiences like that are only going to help her, her ability alone will win her races, but we want her to compete with the next level of dog.”

The Hall’s have big plans for the bitch with Graham mapping out her next few months if everything goes well.

“There are a couple of nice races on the horizon for her, she’s under Leanne’s name so she gets a run-on Thursday night in the Women Trainers Final where she looks a red-hot chance and she’s also Ipswich Auction eligible,” he said.

“She’s only had the one start at Ipswich and won by about thirteen lengths, the series will obviously be tougher, but she still showed she can ping the lids there.

“Thinking long term, races like the Albion Park Young Guns and the Flying Amy look right in her wheelhouse if she stays healthy.”

It’s not often you run 30 seconds dead on a Monday and are overshadowed but that’s exactly what happened to Double Malt, who also clocked a career best after a sizzling 5.43 to the first mark.

“We always knew Extra Malt would get the 500m, but we’ve been in two minds about her brother (Double Malt), who’s taken a few more starts to get there,” Hall said.

“I love him as a dog even when he wasn’t running out the 500m, he would give you absolutely everything on the track, even Monday night when he was past the winning line he was gone.

“He’s going to be the type of dog who does his damage in the first two sections, 5.43 early is rapid and his run down the back is pretty similar to that of his sister, he’ll win plenty of races breaking their hearts.”

The Hall’s trained the duo’s mother, It Gets Better, when they were racing in Victoria and when she came available, they jumped at the chance to get a nice brood bitch.

“We trained the dam It Gets Better for a fellow from New South Wales, she had brilliant box speed and when he put her up for sale, we purchased her,” Hall said.

“She raced in Victoria and struggled to get the 500m but was lightning over the one turn tracks and on that basis, we thought we could get some really nice pups putting her to Paw Licking and we’ve got two good ones on the track and another couple who should measure up too.

“That was her first litter we’ve given her plenty of time to recover and come through and we’ve just mated her with Fernando Bale about ten days ago, which we’re extremely excited about.”