Dream becomes a reality for Jan Jones
After a series of heats and then semi-finals, the Final of the 2017 Produce was run at the Gawler track on Sunday night, with all three placegetters coming from the Barossa.
Trainer Jan Jones provided three of the finalists and Lauren Harris two runners, but there are no guarantees in the finals of classic races. As the lids went up, Long Gully Josh from box 7 quickly mustered speed to cross the field and take the lead from High Eden Snow (4) and Stack The Aces (6).
Down the back straight and Long Gully Josh opened up a break of 3 lengths over Dream A Little (1), which had found a run while sticking to the rails. As they turned into the home straight, the fast finishing Dream A Little stormed home down the outside to narrowly win on the line by just ¾ of a length, in a great time of 30.84 secs on a heavy track. Long Gully Josh ran a game race to finish second for Paula Hearnden of Angaston, while the fancied High Eden Frost (5) was only a whisker away in third place for Jan Jones.
The winner is trained by Jan Jones at Eden Valley and is raced in partnership with husband Tony. All three of their runners are from the same Banjo Boy and Zardae litter, which they had purchased through a long-time friend in Victoria, but they had reared them from an early age. Jan said that she had nominated for the series about six times over the years, but this was the first time that she had runners in the Final. Jan and Tony have been in greyhounds for some twenty years, and after racing at he Gawler track, they had quickly become aware that the race is something special. To now win it was a big thrill, as Jan said it is always “anybody’s race”.
Jan said that although Dream A Little was not as fancied as her other runners, because of the form that Dream A Little had shown in the St Leger, Jan had a sneaky feeling she could go well. Jan and Tony both enjoy their involvement in the industry and Tony likes the interaction with every one of their greyhounds. With a bonus on offer to the winner of both the Produce and the Gawler Gold Cup, Jan is hoping that the team can contest the upcoming event in November, but In the meantime all three greyhounds will have a short, well-earned break.
