More fun than horses (Gawler)
That was the opinion of excited part owner Anthony Cooper after his greyhound won it’s maiden event at the first attempt at Gawler greyhounds on Tuesday.
Lining up in the Rapidvite Open Maiden Stake over 400 metres, Allen Operate from box 3 jumped to lead briefly from Hired Gun (1) and My Excuse out wide from box 8. However My Excuse swept straight to the front and from that point it was not headed.
My Excuse ran a strong race to win by nearly 6 lengths in a very good time for a maiden runner of 22.82 secs. Hired Gun ran second for Rob Harnas of Lewiston and Allen Operate finished in third position for Tony Rasmussen of Murray Bridge.
My Excuse is raced by Adelaide Hills owners Duane Jones and Anthony Cooper, and trained by Karen Wittholz . Duane and Anthony struck up a friendship while playing cricket some 8 years ago, and Anthony was keen to join Duane in greyhound ownership. Duane has raced a number of successful greyhounds over the years, including a Gawler Trackstar winner, Token Class, while Anthony had dabbled with thoroughbred ownership without much success.
Anthony explained that he loves the thrill of greyhound racing, and that for him it was “more fun than horses” as you can get involved in the process from selecting your own pup and following it’s progress. Duane and Anthony named My Excuse “Boss” as they thought he was the standout of the litter that Karen and Mike Wittholz bred. Being the first in the litter to race and with such a good first up win, the “Boss” might just be that.
Lewiston trainer Rebecca McAuley-Fry turned in the best performance of the day when she led in three winners. Rebecca kicked the day off with Havago Billy winning race 2, followed by Blue Star and Havago Brinni.
The racing program at Gawler continues on Tuesday afternoons, with a Sunday twilight on August 10th. From there, racing will be at those times every Tuesday and Sunday.