Anniversary Cup goes off with a bang - Mount Gambier Week in Review
Anniversary Cup goes off with a bang
As far as 62-year-old Ross Creek trainer Mark Johnson was concerned he was never going to die wondering when it came to his greyhound Fireworks’ ability to run out a strong 512 metres at Mount Gambier.
“Most of her racing had been over shorter distances prior to her joining our kennels in April and I had been keen to see whether she could go any further,” Johnson said.
“So I lined her up in a 460 metre event at Geelong in early June and when she ran Follow The Band to 3½ lengths I figured that the forthcoming Mount Gambier Anniversary Cup could be worth a shot.”
And Fireworks gave plenty of cheek in an Anniversary Cup heat. She flew the start from box eight and crossed the field to lead for much of the journey before being beaten a length into second spot by Top Cadillac in 29.70 seconds.
A week later, Johnson and his partner Tracy were back in Mount Gambier for the 40th running of the Anniversary Cup, once again sponsored locally by Exchange Printers.
Interestingly, the night prior at The Meadows and Follow The Band, the dog that perhaps encouraged Johnson into stepping up Fireworks in distance, won the $75,000-to-the-winner Maturity for Yambuk owner Tom Sinnott and the Gibbons team of Avalon.
Come the local final and box one runner Fireworks settled in second spot early behind Captain Rosie. No doubt, Johnson would have been hoping for his daughter of Sennachie and Mepunga Dasha to be leading around the first turn.
Then, to make matters worse, the Mark Roberts owned and trained Lektra Tony and Cap Abbott’s Top Cadillac were making their moves.
But turning for home and Fireworks dashed clear. On the line she had 1¼ lengths to spare over Lektra Tony with Top Cadillac a further length back in third spot – the minor placegetters also turning in terrific runs.
“She certainly had to dig deep and I thought it was a terrific effort,” said Johnson who rates the win as one of his best in an involvement that goes back more than 40 years.
Fireworks was recently purchased by Broken Hill-based Tyson Trengove who, according to Johnson, was over the moon with the win.
“Yes, he was pretty excited with the win when I spoke with him last night. I’m also looking at giving her a run at Angle Park and he’s also pretty happy about that.”
Meanwhile, at the conclusion of the presentation, Tracy was quick to head inside the clubrooms and display the cup and rug for photographic purposes. “I’ll send some pictures to my kids, I’m sure they will be suitably impressed,” she said.
It wasn’t until 2018 when Johnson was living in the Warragul region that he became more involved with greyhounds – to the extent that at one stage he was a committee member of the Warragul Greyhound Racing Club.
“Coursing-wise, I won the Benalla Cup and Longwood Cups with Bees On Fire in 2019. I also gained plenty of experience when working with trainers such as the Daillys, Jeff Britton and Angela Langton, the Grenvilles, and the Gibbons. Not only that, I was also involved with some great greyhounds.”
Johnson’s Anniversary Cup day ended with a double after Share My Orbit, who chased Gypsy Chick into the home straight before taking up the running, was successful in the Greg Martlew Autos Stake (400 m).
By Pindari Express out of Imminent, Share My Orbit is owned by well-known Victorian greyhound man Geoff Collins who also has Super Seattle with Johnson.
Super Seattle, a son of Shima Shine and the US-bred Super C Azelle, has now recorded two wins and a second from four starts.
Two years ago Johnson and Tracy decided that if they were going to be involved in greyhound racing then they should be doing it themselves.
“We purchased a three-acre property at Ross Creek, only 15 kilometres outside Ballarat, and have 24 greyhounds on the property,” Johnson said.
“We actually now have a good cross section of greyhounds and a good group of owners.”
And who knows, maybe they will also become involved with some of their own great greyhounds.
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Happy Anniversary at Tara Raceway
The Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club’s Anniversary Cup meeting run in late July is always one of the club’s better meetings of the year. And yesterday’s was no exception.
The first meeting was run on Saturday, July 21, 1979 out at the club’s original track at the Glenburnie racecourse. Ten races were run on opening day over distances of 289 metres, 476 metres and 667 metres.
Then known as the South East Greyhound Racing Club, president was N. F. McDonald and vice president A. McFarlane with the committee comprising A. Mangan, I. Badger, W. Ward, C. Sims, N. Allchurch, J. King, N. Widdison and R. Potter.
On opening day, there were six bookmakers operating, two of those betting concession.
The first Anniversary Cup was run in 1985 and won by the Hazel Lane trained Kenzel Lad who also was successful again the following year when trained by Connie Miller who also won the race in 1987 with Durafi.
In 1988, the Ross Richards trained Tuscany was successful prior to Itsa Mission and Mishka Star winning for Allen Peckham, father of David, who trained five winners at yesterday’s Anniversary Cup meeting.
By 1997, greyhound racing had switched to Lake Terrace East with the first Anniversary Cup won by the Col Sims trained Becker McLaren. In fact, by 2004 Sims had won a further three Anniversary Cups with Meg’s Temptation (2001), Tiarni Ball (2002) and Amber Rhode.
On track and thoroughly enjoying yesterday’s day were Kath Matthias and her team from Exchange Printers, sponsors of the Anniversary Cup.
And winning his first feature race at Tara Raceway was Ross Creek trainer Mark Johnson with Fireworks who defeated Terang trainer Mark Roberts’ Lektra Tony by 1¼ lengths in 30.09 seconds. In third place was Top Cadillac, trained at Edenhope by Cap Abbott.
Complementing the Anniversary Cup since 2005 has been the John Reid Memorial, a 512 metre heat and final series for maiden greyhounds, first won by Robert Halliday’s Itza Bee.
David Peckham won the 2006 Reid Memorial with Bourne Destiny and in 2022 with Lochinvar Cahill. He was also successful last Sunday with Bourne Model who defeated Saint Raine by three lengths in a quick 29.88 seconds.
In 2014, in recognition of another club stalwart, the Eric Lewis Memorial was added to the Anniversary Cup day list of feature races. The inaugural Eric Lewis was won by the Robert Britton trained Zipping Basil.
Last year’s winner was Zipping Neutron, who broke the still standing 732 metre track record with a run of 42.73 seconds when defeating In The Bug by 11¾ lengths for Adelaide trainer Tim Aloisi.
This year it was the Jason Newman trained Redshift Uniform, recently back in Mount Gambier after a stint of racing in WA, who defeated Sher Zany by 9¾ lengths in a time of 43.81 seconds.
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Cusack’s best-ever day at the track
Mount Cottrell-based trainer Paul Cusack, first involved in greyhound racing back in the late 1980s, enjoyed his best-ever day at the track last Thursday when leading in four winners at Mount Gambier’s time-graded meeting.
Kicking off his big day was Quantum Leap, a son of Sennachie and maiden bitch Springvale Diva, in the Exchange Printers TG1-4W Stake (400 metres).
Away well from box six, the black dog virtually led all the way, eventually running out a 4¼ length winner over Maybe Spaghetti in 23.66 seconds.
There’s a bit of winning form around Springvale Diva – 10 starts for three placings. Two of her litter brothers, Axel Footluce and Jack Get Back, won 21 races and $155,000 in prize money and 18 races and $71,000 respectively. And their dam, Footluce Diva, won 17 races and $61,000.
Cusack’s second winner came up in the Commercial Hotel TG1-4W Stake (400 m) when Runway, a newcomer to the kennel, led all the way when defeating Tested by 2½ lengths in 23.64 seconds.
“She was a giveaway from the Sharp kennel and I thought she might be alright to race at Mount Gambier’s time-graded meetings,” he said. “Judging by today’s effort I reckon there should be a few more wins in her.”
Another newcomer to Tara Raceway for Cusack was Jet Easy in the Ary Sports Bar & Bistro TG1-4W Stake (400 m). She quickly put herself in the race from box eight and in the run home Jet Easy, Mavie and Mocambora Mia fought out the finish.
On the line, Jet Easy had a head to spare over Mavie with the early leader Mocambora Mia a length back in third spot in 23.27 seconds.
For the winner it had been a while between drinks with the white and blue bitch having last won at Warragul back in October.
“She had been off the scene for a while due to being in season and had to run a satisfactory trial given the amount of time she had been away from the race track,” Cusack said.
“Prior to last week’s Mount Gambier meeting she had won a coursing stake at Lang Lang and that seemed to top her off nicely for last week’s race.”
Owned by Jason Portelli, Jet Easy is a white and blue daughter of Hooked On Scotch out of Nice And Easy and has now won five races.
Cusack’s fourth winner of the day came in the Metal Worx TG1-4W Stake (400 m) with Quantum’s Dream who led all the way for a 1¼ length win over Lucky Me in 23.61 seconds.
A winner of her maiden over 305 metres back in December last year at Tara Raceway, Quantum’s Dream is by Spring Gun out of Main Exit.
Speaking after his best day at the track, Cusack said his initial involvement in greyhound racing had amounted to eight years and resulted in moderate success.
“I was then out of the sport for something like 18 years before returning again in 2013. Since then, my best dog has been the city-winning Go Quantum, the son of Fernando Bale and As It Goes actually ending his racing career at Mount Gambier with a couple of wins.”