Sometimes you never know where a good one’s coming
It was back in 2008 that Nathan Wilson and his wife Kerri, along with his sister Melissa and her husband Ken Trowbridge, first became interested in greyhound racing.
One of their first greyhounds was a pup by Hallucinate out of a dam called Scarlett, who to be fair, never really set the world on fire when winning four low-grade races from 50-odd starts.
Their purchase did later hit the track, although once again to be fair, without really setting the world on fire. In fact, on debut at Angle Park in June 2010 the then-named Foot Luce was beaten by 28 lengths.
A couple of months later she did win her maiden at her second start at Angle Park in 30.63 seconds. Three unplaced runs followed at Angle Park, Gawler and Port Pirie before a final run at the now-closed northern track resulted in a 32 lengths defeat and signalled her retirement.
But the decision in 2012 to mate Foot Luce with Vapour Whirl turned out to be one of the best decisions the two couples ever made.
“This turned out to be an unbelievable litter. Winning more than half a million dollars, there were six city winners and multiple Group finalists,” the Pinnaroo-based Wilson said.
Foot Luce died after her first litter due to a snake bite but she did leave some very nice females, including Oakvale Destiny who won 17 races and close to $280,000 in stakemoney. And the line has subsequently thrown on.
Wilson was at Tara Raceway last Sunday for the Commercial Hotel Mount Gambier Cup (512 metres) with Oakvale Style, the daughter of Fernando Bale and Oakvale Destiny drawing box five in the final heat.
Lining up on the back of consecutive 515 metres wins at Angle Park, both in close to best of night times, Oakvale Style found herself with plenty to do down the back before working home well for a two lengths second behind Gypsy Bun in 29.67 seconds.
Second placegetters in the cup heats were lining up for a spot in the final. However, with only one spot in dispute it came down to the decimal point – Oakvale Style getting the nod and Nathan Wilson now hoping his 13-race winner can go one better on Sunday afternoon.