Gawler Greyhounds Review
Sunday night at Gawler greyhounds brought out a good crowd again to watch great racing, which featured the Future Stars race. The Future Stars is one of many races available for younger greyhounds, with the qualification on this occasion being for SA bred greyhounds, which were whelped in 2019.
Run over the 531m journey, a full field of eight runners was engaged. Crazy Diva jumped away the best from box 1, to take an early lead from Missing Grace (2), and Way Too Much (3) trying to push through. Around the first turn, Crazy Diva was able to kick away from the others, opening up a handy three length break down the back straight. Frodo Baggins (6) started to run on from midfield and looked some chance to challenge the leader, but was not able to narrow the margin, leaving Crazy Diva with a comfortable win by nearly four lengths. Gemtree Maximus (8) made up some ground after running into trouble on a couple of occasions, to finish second for Paul Rehmann of Murray Bridge, with Concede (7) racing into third spot for Clint Trengrove of Lewiston.
Crazy Diva is trained by Lewiston based Des Hockley, and is raced by the Bazinga Syndicate, managed by his partner Renata Maruszczyk. Crazy Diva is from the third litter by Just Crazy, but Renata was unable to attend as she was caring for a newly whelped litter from Crazy Again, a daughter of Just Crazy. Des was appreciative of the assistance on the night from Brenda Oakey, who has greyhounds of her own with Des, and is always willing to lend a hand.
Des has had a lot of success with Crazy Diva, which has now notched up 12 wins and 5 placings from just 22 starts. Crazy Diva had run second to her littermate Far More Crazy at the recent Gawler Breeder’s Classic, but this time she took out a feature in her own right. The litter overall has been very successful, with eight of the litter of nine having won at least a race.
The next feature event for young greyhounds is the Produce Series, to be run at Gawler in July, and Des is hopeful that three from this litter, Crazy Diva, Far More Crazy and Sometime Crazy, will be at their best to contest the Series. Looking to the future, Des has a seven month old litter from top stud dog Fernando Bale from Qormie Bale to follow on. Interestingly, Des chooses to educate all his dogs through to the racing stage, and he can be proud of the results he receives at the track.
With the closure of Angle Park track for four months due to a major upgrade, there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy greyhound racing at Gawler in the coming months. In this period, there is racing on Tuesday and Friday afternoons, as well as the popular Sunday nights, and for something different, racing on alternate Saturday mornings. Bookings for meals are always recommended for meals on Sunday night, by ringing 8522-2935.