The all-the-way win of Another Pick over kennelmate Gold Rocks in last Thursday’s Metal Worx Stake (400 metres) has long-time Edenhope trainer Cap Abbott well-placed to collect his second Mount Gambier Greyhound of the Year award in the space of three years.

Purchased as a four-month-old pup by Abbott and Kerry Hawker, the daughter of Unlawful x Proud Fantasy has now won 12 local races this year. Add to that 8 seconds and 6 thirds and she leads the way with 70 points – 13 clear of Sianna Magic.

With eight race meetings remaining this season, and while Another Pick now looks pretty well assured of victory, it was a different story in 2019 when Abbott’s Black Spring scored a narrow win over Cryer’s Harper after both greyhounds ended the year with 13 wins.

Of recent interest was Cryer’s Harper’s first litter – six dogs and three bitches to Orson Allen, whelped at Nicole Stanley and Nifty Lenehan’s Portland Kennels.

Cryer’s Harper is a daughter of Cryer’s Midget (Texas Gold x Shady Grove Fox), winner of the 2011 Mount Gambier Greyhound of the Year award and later the dam of two very successful litters by Spring Gun for Tom and Margaret Cryer of Apsley.

Cryer’s Midget’s third and final mating was to Spud Regis and included Cryer’s Harper, a winner of 22 races. Together, the three litters resulted in her finishing in the top two of the Leading Dams list on three occasions.

Meanwhile, this year’s Ian Badger Leading Trainer award is not so cut and dried, though. Currently, Compton trainer Tracie Price is leading David Peckham of Allendale East by a narrow margin.

Both trainers have won the leading trainers’ award twice in the past five years. With Price having led for the majority of this year, and Peckham for part of October and November, the 2021 Ian Badger looks like going down to the wire.

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