Gawler Greyhounds - 11.10.20
Murray Bridge greyhound trainer, Greg Board, followed up his double at Gawler the previous week, with an even more impressive result this week.
Bringing six greyhounds to the track this week, Greg had a fantastic day out, heading home with four winners and two second placings. Getting the ball rolling was Spring Scout, which won the 400m Juvenile event in 23.06 secs, with a margin in hand of 1½ lengths. The second winner came in a Grade 6 event over 400m, where Spring Poldark won after leading all the way, in a good time of 22.90 secs.
The next two winners of Greg’s had won the previous week, and continued with their good form. The first of these was Spring Cobra, which won the 531m Mixed Grade 4/5 race after being forced back to the rear of the field. Using good sense to rail through the field, Spring Cobras was able to make ground quickly, and then settling mid-field, slowly worked his way passed the leader, Untold, to go on and win by 2 lengths in 31.09 secs.
The final win came in the Grade 5 400m event, when Spring Halo got away well to power away from the opposition and run a very fast 22.58 secs, thus giving his rivals a difficult target to catch, winning by nearly five lengths.
Greg not only trains the quartet, but he also owns them, as well as breeding them. All of his greyhounds use the prefix “Spring”, which comes from his previous abode at Spring Hill NSW, where all the dogs are reared. Greg has an interesting history , as he was heavily involved in rodeo events, and in 1974 he was the Australasian Bull Riding Champion. With that sport being rough and tough, Greg said that injuries made him slow down a bit, and he had coincidently been introduced to greyhound racing by some friends who took him to the track, and then he had his own couple of dogs.
So Greg eventually set up his property in Spring Hill and increased his involvement, which resulted in many Group race wins. Looking to slow down a bit and escape the demands of the industry, Greg and his wife Helen decided to move to Murray Bridge, just before the new track was built there. He still owns the Spring Hill property, which is now run by his son Scott, and also has a successful racing team in Queensland. He has not regretted the move to SA, appreciating the less demanding lifestyle, but he would like to see an increase in prizemoney to reward owners and trainers for their efforts.
The Gawler Gold Cup will be held this year on Sunday 25th as a twilight meeting, but in the meantime we continue to race Friday (except 23rd) and Tuesday.