Christmas Cheer in full swing at the Mount
Wild Milly in line for another feature race win
The win of Compton-based greyhound Wild Milly in 29.43 seconds in the first heat of last Sunday’s Williams Crane Hire Christmas Cup (512 metres) at Tara Raceway now has the black bitch looking well placed to win her third feature race in the space of a couple of months.
Trained by Tracie Price for Tony Longe, the daughter of US sire Need My Moneynow and Wild Marilyn defeated Windsor Girl in last month’s time-honoured McDonnell Memorial (512 m). And at Murray Bridge earlier this month she was successful in the Anniversary Cup (530 m).
Price looks to hold a strong hand in the Christmas Cup which was first run in 2011. Dirty Dash, a recent 29.50 seconds 512 metre winner at the track, is also through to the final after running second to Wild Milly.
And Wild Milly’s litter sister Wild Star, who is raced in the same interests, is another one to take her place in the final after running Top Cadillac to a neck in the second of the two heats.
Successful in the 2014 Christmas Cup with Who’s Doing What, Price won the event again the following year with Fear The Rascal and again in 2020 with Golly Gumdrops prior to Mister Banjo’s win last year.
Top Cadillac’s hard-fought win also saw him finally take the lead in the 2024 Mount Gambier Greyhound of the Year (GOTY) award. With only two meetings remaining that carry GOTY points, the son of Feral Franky and Establish now sits on 57 points, three clear of kennelmate Mister Cadillac.
It was certainly a day of fast times at Tara Raceway last Sunday.
Aston Hornet, trained at Dennington by Dustin Drew, carved out a time of 34.66 seconds in the Cadillac Racing Stake (600 m) – only a length outside Giant’s Flash’s record of 35.58 seconds run two years ago.
In the Produce Store Mixed Stake (512 m), the Price trained Compton Gold, a daughter of Beast Unleashed and Minnie Banjo, led all the way when defeating Moonlight Annie by 2¾ lengths in 29.33 seconds.
Compton Gold’s time was 2½ lengths outside the record of 29.15 seconds, run by Rob Camilleri’s Uriel Bale in a heat of this year’s Mount Gambier Cup.
Minnie Banjo, all up a winner of 19 races, while being trained by Price ran a 400 metre track record at Tara Raceway of 22.42 seconds on February 6, 2022.
And for the second time this year at Tara Raceway, a track record was run or equalled, last Sunday by Lektra Tony who defeated Aston King by six lengths in the second heat of the Santa Sprint (400 m) in a time of 22.42 seconds.
Lektra Tony, a son of Houdini Boy and Lektra Jena, was bred by Phil Lenehan at Toolong and originally raced by him prior to the fawn dog relocating briefly to the Hammerstein kennels at Ararat.
Mark and Catherine Roberts of Terang took over the owning and training of Lektra Tony in early June and have now won seven races with him. He was also runner-up to Fireworks in this year’s Anniversary Cup (512 m) at Mount Gambier.
“I’ve been involved with greyhounds since the 1980s and I reckon he’s fast becoming the best dog I’ve been associated with, especially given he’s my first track record holder,” Roberts said after last Sunday’s record-equalling run.
“He’s a good hard worker in the runs, a good kennel dog and loves to race so really we can’t ask for much more than that.”
In the third and final heat of the Santa Sprint, Is He Lucky, a member of the promising Beast Unleashed x Made Me Blind litter settled in second spot before finishing strongly for a 4¾ length win over Chester Deeds in 23.18 seconds.
Purchased as a pup by the Hammersteins, the February 2023 black dog is raced by Doug Hammerstein and has now won 10 races from 22 starts.
And as far as the Williams Crane Hire Christmas Cup is concerned, well done to Princetown owner-trainer April Janssen and her son Louis on Swift Gift and Princetown Flyer reaching the final.
Swift Gift and Princetown Flyer go into the final having both won one race – at Tara Raceway over 400 metres.
It’s going to be a fair ask but this sort of thing has happened before. After all, April’s father, Paul Herry, some years ago won a maiden in ordinary time at Warrnambool and then promptly nominated the dog at its next start for a heat of the Warrnambool Cup.
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Another treble for Goodwin team
First it was Penny Drop, Nearly Irish and Time To Burn who strung together a treble at Tara Raceway for Hamilton trainer Kyle Goodwin back on August 11.
And then at Tara Raceway’s time-graded meeting last Thursday it was Goodwin’s mother, Lorraine, who trained three winners – Pace To Burn, JaJa Ding Dong and Blue To Burn.
Pace To Burn, a son of Fernando Bale and Sublime News, settled in third spot in the Metal Worx TG5+W Stake (400 metres) before railing through off the back to take the lead from Mocambora Mia and run out a three length winner in 23.72 seconds.
Also bred and owned by Goodwin, the white and black dog boasts a strong staying dam line and is now an eight-race winner.
JaJa Ding Dong, the quicker of the two Fast Forward 1-4 wins series (400 m) heats, is through to the Category 2 prize money final at this Thursday’s meeting.
The daughter of Beast Unleashed and Storm To Burn found herself in second spot behind Sophie’s Beast before finishing well and holding out Eskimo Ruby to win by three-quarters of a length in 23.45 seconds.
Litter sister Blue To Burn brought up the treble in the Icon Signs TG1-4W Stake (400 m) when settling in second spot before taking the lead turning for home and running out a four length winner over Handy Malone in 23.35 seconds.
Complementing the treble was son Kyle’s win with Penny Drop, the daughter of Fernando Bale and All Dolled Up winning her first race since the end of August after finding the front going out of the first turn.
From then on, the black bitch was never headed in the Klaassens Contractors TG5+W Stake (512 m), eventually having 3¼ lengths to spare over Cadillac Patch when bringing up her sixth win at the track in a handy 30.17 seconds.
Another good day for the mother and son team who collectively has now trained 64 winners this year at Tara Raceway – Lorraine 40 and Kyle 24.
And more busy times look to be ahead for the Goodwins following the recent mating of Princess Kiwi with Aussie Infrared – due to whelp next month.
Among Princess Kiwi’s earlier litter by Fernando Bale is NSW chaser Ferness who has won 10 races and more than $115,000 in prize money while the Goodwins have won 10 races with Kiwi To Burn at Tara Raceway.
They are also holding out high hopes for their February 2024 Princess Kiwi litter of 10 dogs and two bitches by Tommy Shelby.
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Halliday chasing a second memorial win
It’s now two years since Portland owner-trainer Robert Halliday was successful with Compton Robbie in the Peter Whitehead Memorial Maiden (400 metres) at the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club’s Christmas meeting at Tara Raceway.
As it turned out Halliday was unable to make the trip over but fellow Portland owner-trainer Brian Weis handled the job with aplomb and delivered the trophy safely back to Portland.
Halliday was back at Tara Raceway last Sunday for this year’s heats of the Whitehead Memorial – this time with a couple of well-bred first-starter brindle dogs by Flying Ricciardo out of Miami Fernando’s third litter.
Actually, categorising the pair as simply well-bred is possibly selling them short. After all, her first litter, by Zambora Brockie, produced Amron Boy, a winner of 22 races and $674,000 in prize money.
And the second, by Feral Franky, includes Boracay Storm, winner of this year’s Group 2 Bendigo Cup (425 metres).
Purchased as pups, the brindle dogs found their way to Halliday’s property where they were reared and later broken-in by the long-time trainer and educator with assistance, once again, from Weis.
Now racing as Way Cool and High Cube, the former lined up from box four in the first heat of the memorial and didn’t lose too many friends when working home well to be beaten by David Peckham’s Aston Jimena by two lengths in 23.11 seconds.
Always on the pace in the second heat, High Cube grabbed a rails run off the back before going on to a two length win over Hey You Guys in 23.20 seconds.
The Peter Whitehead Memorial Maiden final will be part of the Williams Crane Hire Christmas Cup meeting at Tara Raceway this Sunday. All distances will be catered for, ranging from 305 metres to 732 metres.
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Family and friends catch up at the dogs
Locally-based Annegret Zaccardo, a Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club (MGGRC) member back in 2021, together with her late husband John and friends Tony and Marj D’Agostino, made a welcome return to the track for last Sunday’s meeting.
And Annegret, who hosted a day at the greyhounds with family and friends, found that not much had really changed since the last time she had been at Tara Raceway – with the exception of the ongoing clubroom renovations, of course.
“This is still a lovely place to come to for a Sunday afternoon catch-up with family and friends,” she said. “And thank you for making us so welcome today.”
Meanwhile, Craig Grubb’s interest in local greyhound racing goes back to the days out at the Glenburnie racecourse during the 1990s when it was bookmakers only and George Kay called the Saturday afternoon Mount Gambier greyhound races on radio 5SE.
“Grubby”, who has been a regular at Tara Raceway ever since, last year made a donation of $500 to the club. Later, the generous donation was put to the purchase of a locally-made wooden table to join several others situated in the front of the clubrooms.
With plaque in place acknowledging the donation, “Grubby” was joined at the table last Sunday by fellow regulars Noel Perry and Michael Robinson, along with Penshurst-based Jack Casey, who came across with his nephew Brendan Casey, the owner-trainer of Flax Mill.
Noel, also the MGGRC president, while seated at the table extended the club’s sincere thanks to “Grubby” for his generous donation and continued support of the club.
And $14 chance Flax Mill, a son of Aussie Infrared and Banjo Lass, made for a good day for the Casey clan when defeating the well-fancied pair of Come On Kilkenny and Zipping Shakira in the Greg Martlew Autos Mixed Stake (512 metres) in 30.23 seconds.
At Tara Raceway for last Thursday’s time-graded meeting was the president’s daughter Nicola, down from Queensland for the holidays and hoping for a big showing from her father’s team of three.
As it turned out the wait was worthwhile after Rough Girl Mel, the last of the three to go around, led all the way in the Greg Martlew Autos TG1-4W Stake (512 m) when defeating Moonlight Comet by 2¼ lengths in 30.42 seconds.
Now a winner of five races, Rough Girl Mel, a daughter of My Redeemer and Vossy, takes her racing name from Nicola’s sister, Melissa, while four-race winner and litter sister Rough Girl Slim is named after Nicola.