Golden Maiden final to headline Family Fun in the Sun at Gawler
Golden Maiden final to headline Family Fun in the Sun at Gawler
Sunday’s Gawler meeting looks set to be a terrific night of racing with the final of the Gawler Golden Maiden coinciding with the annual Family Fun in the Sun event.
Held across all greyhound racing venues in South Australia, the free event includes kids entertainment, face painters, trackside bars and food vans, live music as well as the racing action on course with Gawler’s event to be held on Sunday January 28.
On the track, the feature event will be the 2024 Gawler Golden Maiden with an interesting final set after four heats were run last Sunday.
With many of the runners having their first start under race conditions, there was plenty of intrigue across the four heats.
It was the red-hot Gavin Harris kennel which took out the first heat with the nicely bred Zinfandel Austin taking out the race in 31.02 which was the quickest of the four qualifiers after showing plenty of early speed to find the rail from box one.
The Richard Pearce-trained Keep It Zipped took out the second heat, getting a nice run through on the rail from box two and powering away to win by 10 lengths in 31.06.
Jimmy Dewalt took out the third heat with another nice win from box one. Jimmy Dewalt was able to rail through hard and create a buffer down the back straight maintaining the advantage winning by five lengths in 31.27.
The final heat was a slightly messier affair with plenty of bumping throughout with the Bosko Stamenkovic trained Merindah Cool holding off the well-backed and fast-finishing Springvale Grace in 31.80.
Both runners progressed through to the final and will be joined by Dark Thrill, Deano Lincoln and Sebea who all qualified for the final as second place finishers in their respective heats.
The heat win capped a good day for the Stamenkovic team, who collected two other winners on the 12-race program giving them a treble for the evening.
The first was Call Me Jacques, who showed plenty of early speed mustering around the field from box eight to find the lead and open a winning break of six lengths in a slick 22.68 over the 400m trip.
The second was the talented Magical Mystic who improved her record to eight wins and six placings from just 19 starts with a strong run home to win from box three over the 531m journey in 30.97.
Richard Pearce also grabbed a double on the card with the talented Rico Nismo snapping a recent run of five straight placings with a win in the grade six race over the 531m trip.
From box five, she was slow away as per usual but was able to work her way through the field and coming over the top later to win in 30.93.
Springvale Rex gave Gavin Harris a double with the veteran chaser producing a best of the night run over the 531m trip winning in 30.78.
Wednesday
Two trainers grabbed doubles on the Wednesday card with John Mundy and Paula Hearnden both enjoying good days in the time graded meeting.
Mundy got his first winner in race four on the card with Stylish Affair winning a 1–4-win race from box eight over the 400m trip.
Showing plenty of early speed to lead over the first split, Stylish Affair crossed the field and opened up a three-length break in winning in 23.62.
Soul Writer completed the double for Mundy winning from box one after a strong 8.89 first split in winning in 23.23.
Paula Hearnden also grabbed a double, the first of which was Long Gully Angel who was away only fairly from box one but was able to get a beautiful passage through on the home turn after the other runners went wide. Long Gully Angel went on to win in 22.98, giving it career win number four from just six starts and looks to be a short course chaser with a lot of promise. Long Gully Shack completed the double two races later, winning in 23.02 with a nice win from box six.