Margin-wise, there wasn’t much to spare in the Sims Family Memorial final (512 metres). But the effort of Hey You Guys when finishing strongly in the run home at Tara Raceway’s January 11 meeting was enough to see her score by a head over Bourne Lickety in 29.93 seconds.
And the win was a real family affair given the daughter of Blue Moon Rising and Mount Gambier Cup winner Galactic Athena is raced by Deb and Craig Hicks and trained by her father, Steve Bartholomew of Worrolong.
Earlier in the day, Bartholomew had been successful in the Quickmix Concrete Group Stake (305 m) with Unique Destiny, a son of Blue Moon Rising and Galactic Destiny, a litter sister to Galactic Athena.
Interestingly, back in November last year Deb Hicks and her sister Elysia Bartholomew had combined to win another time-honoured memorial – the Newman McDonnell – for grade five greyhounds over 512 metres. On that occasion it had been with Hey You Guys’ litter sister Littlefoot.
The Sims name – as is Newman McDonnell – is synonymous with greyhounds in the South-East, whether it be coursing or track racing.
Sims was a member of the SE Greyhound Racing Club committee when racing commenced at Glenburnie. And in 1978 he had been the first to be awarded life membership of the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing and Coursing Club (MGGRC).
He also won the final Mount Gambier Cup run at Glenburnie in 1996 with the speedy front-running Colin Ian. And he won the first Anniversary Cup conducted at the Lake Terrace East venue in 1997 with Becker McLaren.
The Sims Feature Maiden (512 m) had been run in various forms over a number of years but was first conducted as a memorial event in 2013 when won by the Captain Abbott trained Arbour Darby in 30.71 seconds.
Benara Cosmic (Tracie Price) 30.33, Andy Jay (Toni Jones) 30.31, Rowchester Star (Nicole Stanley) 30.60, McIvor Neville (Peter Franklin) 30.64 and Got Some Cheek (Paul Herry) 30.52 then followed.
In 2019 the Sims family came together at Tara Raceway like never before following the death of Val and Col Sims’ son Ian, also a life member of the MGGRC. Nifty Lenehan’s Twisted Missile won the memorial in 30.50 seconds.
Subsequent winners have been Rocketline (Tracie Price) 30.16, Compton Brett (Tracie Price) 30.43, Strike Eagle (Jason Newman) 30.69, Tinker Vogue (Jason Newman) 30.23, Eskimo Moana (Bob Wombwell) 30.31 and Mr. Tangelo (Tracie Price) 30.65 prior to the recent keenly contested final.
In the past the Sims Memorial had always been run as a maiden 512 metre event. But in recent times it had become increasingly difficult to attract a sufficient number of greyhounds still chasing their first win to contest the race over that distance.
This year the race rose in class to become a grade six. And the one-off final, which carried Open prize money, turned out to be an excellent race.
Also excellent was the on-track attendance of the Sims family, headed by Lorraine Webber, along with friends. Once again they threw their support behind the memorial and this made for an enjoyable day.
Meanwhile, Wattle Flat trainer Rosalyn Hume kicked off the day well with a litter double – Nuclear Code and Nudge Unit – in the Gordon Refrigeration Stake (400 m) and the Federal Hotel Stake (305 m).
Nuclear Code, who had won her maiden on debut the previous week, led all the way from box seven when defeating Reel Infrared by 1¼ lengths in 23.33 seconds.
And Nudge Unit quickly found the front from box two before racing away to 4¾ length win over Crowie Unleashed in a best of day 17.42 seconds
Handling the pair was their owner and the trainer’s partner Geoff Collins who in recent times has been making regular trips across to Tara Raceway for the Sunday meetings.
“The litter sisters are by Bernardo out of Quena Dee Air, a winner of 12 races and $23,000 in prize money,” Collins said. “They were bred by the Paraskevas family at Pearcedale and there’s plenty of winning form around Nuclear Code and Nudge Unit who we purchased as pups.”
Quena Dee Air’s litter includes Nervous An Weird (27 wins, $116,000 prize money) as well as Pure White Evil (23, $70,000) and third in the 2019 Mount Gambier Cup behind Galactic Athena and Slingshot Hammer.
By Barcia Bale out of Father Of Mine, Quena Dee Air’s litter also comprises Eye Got It, winner of the inaugural Murray Bridge Cup in 2019, along with 30 other races and $81,000 in prize money.