2020 Howard Ashton Final Review
One feature race win over the years that has eluded Meningie trainer Cameron Butcher has been the Group 3 Howard Ashton however, on Thursday night his star chaser Coorong Lucy rectified that honour role for him in devastating fashion.
Cameron has won almost every feature race on the local racing calendar including the Group 1 National Sprint Final at Angle Park with the brilliant Worm Burner back in 2016. In some nice synergy Worm Burner is the sire of Coorong Lucy and Howard Ashton was one of the first people Cameron came into contact with when he started his involvement many, many years ago.
The darling of SA greyhound racing was sent out a short-priced favourite in the Group 3 feature on the back of her brilliant 29.46 win in her semi-final last week where she shanghaied out of the boxes to lead easily. In a much stronger field, she repeated the dose again and from box 7 exploded from the lids. She ran her first split in a blistering 4.34 racing to the front. Long Gully Barny for Paula Hearnden also showed his terrific early speed and pushed up from box 1 to land second with Born Lovely for Ben Rawlings beginning better than expected up on his outside. Boombox Charlie for Petar Jovanovic, Toora Ziggy for Laurie Cahalan and Wooden Tiger also for Petar, positioned themselves just off the pace. Into the back straight and Coorong Lucy burnt away in the lead with Long Gully Barny into a clear second while Born Lovely held third and moved to the outside. The pace was hot with no greyhound really able to make any ground on the leaders from the rear. Off the back straight and Coorong Lucy was low flying out by a few lengths while Long Gully Barny was challenged strongly by Born Lovely who was running a bold race. As heads turned for home Coorong Lucy was out by 3 lengths and going strongly, Born Lovely ran to a clear second and tried hard to bridge the gap while Long Gully Barny came under pressure to hold third from Toora Ziggy, Boombox Charlie and Wooden Tiger which were charging late. Down to the line and Coorong Lucy showed her class by going onto win by 3 lengths in a sizzling 29.57 from a gallant Born Lovely in second. A further 2 lengths away in third was Wooden Tiger who charged home late and looks like the longer journeys will suit him in the coming weeks, just nosing out Toora Ziggy.
Coorong Lucy is owned locally by Cameron and Yvonne Butcher and was bred by Cameron being by Worm Burner and Molly Be Nimble. In fact, Worm Burner sired the first three placegetters in Thursday’s feature which is an outstanding effort in its self.
Coorong Lucy only turned two in March and now has the impressive record of 25 wins from just 34 starts including 6 minor placings and prizemoney just over $102,000. Who knows where the darling of SA sprinting heads but most locals hope we see her strutting her stuff locally for many more months to come.
Thursday 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 two other inductees in the GCA Hall of Fame, Brian Johnstone and Doug Payne, who also have races named in their honour.