From a number of wins point of view, Edenhope trainer Cap Abbott enjoyed his best day ever at the track on Thursday when he led in four winners at the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club’s Christmas Eve meeting at Tara Raceway.
Wins by White Cadillac, Black Spring, Mauritian Rascal and Another Pick at odds of $21, $5, $10 and $21 respectively overshadowed Abbott’s effort of more than eight years ago at the local track when he trained two outright winners and two first place dead-heaters.
That was the day back in March 2012 when Kevin Mugavin’s Rich Shiraz established a race record of 29.81 seconds when winning the Mount Gambier Cup and when Abbott ended the day with Cool Pick successful in a cup consolation over the David Peckham trained Dare Devil.
Earlier, Paramount Steel had defeated Grafer’s Wish, another Peckham-trained runner, while Surfin’ Flirt dead-heated with John Cameron’s Camo’s Lucky. A second dead-heat followed for Abbott when Paramount Lee dead-heated with Bernie Rogers’s My Boy Buddy.
White Cadillac hadn’t looked like running a place at her first four starts, hence her big odds on Thursday in the Bourne Kennels Maiden Stake (400 metres). But the black and white bitch went straight to the front from box five and was always going to win, running 23.67 seconds and recording a personal best time.
By Mepunga Blazer out of Shiney Bling, a winner of five races at Warrnambool, Horsham and Mount Gambier, White Cadillac was purchased by Kerry Hawker as an 11-month-old youngster from Portland breeder Nicole Stanley.
Black Spring, the 2019 Mount Gambier Greyhound of the Year, brought up his 24th win at start number 120 when charging home along the rails to grab the $60 bolter Saint Sunshine in the second of two heats of the Newman McDonnell Memorial (512 m).
Then it was the front-running Mauritian Rascal, not really suited by the four-dog field in the Winningformula.net.au Open Stake (400 m), that outpaced noted speedsters Keen One and Galactic Zeus, before hanging on for a half head win over the latter in 23.26 seconds.
And with three winners on the board come the last race – the Gordon Refrigeration Stake (400 m) –it looked to be about the long-time trainer’s lot for the day.
This was the second heat of a pretty handy grade five series, but it was another Abbott longshot in Another Pick bringing up her second win for the month at Tara Raceway when charging to the front approaching the home turn and then holding out Montaya for a neck win in 23.41 seconds.
Allendale East-based Peckham also trained four winners – Aston Model, Arriba Arriba, Venus And Mars and Shima Breeze. A fair sort of month so far given that he trained five winners on December 3.
Thursday’s tally took him to 129 local wins for the year, one more than his 2019 total. And while for much of this year Tara Raceway meetings were virtually restricted to local trainers, there were 35 more meetings run at the track last year.