2019 Group 3 Howard Ashton Review
The golden run for local trainer Kirin Corby continued last night in brilliant fashion with one of her star chasers Querencia saluting in the Group 3 Howard Ashton final.
In front of a large crowd, the Group 3 feature for SA Bred greyhounds saw Querencia dominate the market on the back of his blistering 29.30 heat win followed by a scintillating 29.34 win in last weeks semi final.
Drawing awkwardly in box 5 the son of Dyna Double One and Irish Keepsake was slowly away as his main rival Oakvale Beauty for Nathan Wilson exploded from the boxes to lead clearly into the first turn. Emerley Zero for Judi Hurley moved forward into second with Rock It Fernando for Ron Murch was hugging the rail in third. Querencia quickly mustered and was charging forward midfield as the field left the front straight. Into the back straight Oakvale Beauty was making every post a winner by stretching out her lead however Querencia moved quickly into second giving chase strongly. Rock It Fernando was holding third with the rest of the field struggling to make ground. Off the back straight Querencia moved up ominously to Oakvale Beauty as the pair levelled and shortly after he put is paw to the floor and ran to the lead into the front straight as they turned for home. Rock It Fernando was still chasing hard and looking to challenge for second.
Querencia raced away from his rivals and went down to the finish line a big winner by 3 lengths in sizzling 29.49 which was amazing considering he missed the kick. Oakvale Beauty held of the challenge of Rock It Fernando to finish second by ¾ lengths with all placegetters running brilliantly.
Querencia is owned and bred locally by Kirin Corby and joins the likes of Sennachie and Tauwitchere as recent Group winners for Kirin. He has now won 6 races from his 9 starts including 2 minor placings and prizemoney around $38,000.
Last night’s feature race was named in honour of GCA Hall of Fame member, Howard Ashton. Howard was instrumental in the professional running of Greyhound Racing in South Australia for many, many years as an Administrator of the Industry. He started his journey at Angle Park almost 50 years ago and only retired from the industry a few years ago.
South Australia has only 2 other inductees in the GCA Hall of Fame, Brian Johnstone and Doug Payne, who also have races named in their honour.
