It had been almost 12 months to the day since Nuriootpa trainer Jack Trengove’s last big day at Tara Raceway – five winners with Archer Four, Subzero Annie, Crusher, Seasonal and Sweeping at the Thursday, February 8 time-graded meeting.
Back at the Mount Gambier track for the first time since last November, Trengove, accompanied by Adrian Kafkoudas, had 15 runners at last Sunday’s Category 2 meeting – Sharing, Chicken Knight, Paw Ignite and Croatian Comet certainly making the trip worthwhile.
Trengove ensured the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club would be running its first distance event since November when nominating five stayers for the Produce Store Mixed Stake over 732 metres.
And it was Sharing, a daughter of Fernando Bale and Thriving, who kicked off Trengove’s day of four winners when scoring a comfortable seven length win over kennelmates Zipping Whiskey and Mostly in a time of 43.88 seconds.
In Trengove’s kennels since her maiden days when he had purchased her from Victorian breeder Amanda Tullio, Sharing has now won 15 races and $37,000 in prize money.
Chicken Knight, a son of Fernando Bale and Tangelo Fire, is proving to be another good pick up for Trengove – the white and black dog purchased last November by him for $1500.
Having his first start at Tara Raceway last Sunday, he led all the way from box two in the Federal Hotel Stake (400 m), eventually running out a five length winner over Step On Air in 23.32 seconds.
It didn’t take owner Damo Hutchins, who works for Trengove, long to get among the winners with Paw Ignite – a son of Yozo Bale and Knicks Bale.
Lining up for his second start for the Trengove kennel on the back of a first up third at Gawler over 400 metres the previous week, Paw Ignite impressed when leading all the way in the Da’Leni Meats Stake (400 m).
On the line the white and brindle dog had four lengths to spare over Harry Chana when recording the tidy time of 23.08 seconds in the grade six event.
And bringing up Trengove’s fourth winner of the day was Chicken Knight’s litter brother, Croatian Comet, who led all the way in the Commercial Hotel Stake (400 m) when defeating Aston Gleam by 2¾ lengths in 23.23 seconds.
For owner Craig Thomas it was his first win with Croatian Comet. The white and black dog has now returned to Compton trainer Tracie Price’s kennels with a view to setting him for the forthcoming Mount Gambier Cup.
Trengove, 23 at the time and based at Two Wells, still remembers his first trip to Tara Raceway – back in June 2021 soon after he had relocated from Broken Hill to SA.
He had eight runners engaged on that Thursday afternoon and did pretty well when landing a treble with Curiouser, It’s A Louie and Jackie’s Exhibit who had all been recent Broken Hill winners.
Trengove has since made the trip to Mount Gambier plenty of times but is still working on at least matching that day of 12 months ago that produced five winners – his best day ever at any track.
Meanwhile, 4½-year-old Sher Zany continues to race well for local owners Dave Green and Jason Newman who picked up the son of Konomi and Sherbini from Dustin Drew of Dennington back in June last year.
Based at Millicent, Green is Sher Zany’s sixth trainer and fits in the black dog’s training regime around a busy schedule which also includes a young family, part-time employment as a school teacher and vice-president of the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club committee.
Sher Zany has now won nine races for the Green and Newman partnership – ranging in distances from 512 metres to 732 metres at Angle Park and Mount Gambier.
In fact, his first 512 metre win came only last Thursday when he stormed home in the Da’Leni Meats TG5+W Stake to defeat Classy Shot by three-quarters of a length in 30.02 seconds.
Sher Zany then backed up for another win, this time over 600 metres in last Sunday’s Metal Worx Mixed Stake.
And he made a real mess of the grades 3, 4 and 5 field when quickly finding the front from box two and never looking like being headed when running out a 5¼ length winner over Aston Mai Tai in 35.43 seconds.
