Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Tony Hinrichsen’s purchase of Fighting Fury for $600 back in 2009 continues to pay dividends for the Monarto South greyhound breeder-owner-trainer.
Fighting Fury, a daughter of November Fury and Placaleena, ended up winning 11 races, three of those at Tara Raceway in 2010 and 2011, including a heat of a Mount Gambier Cup.
Later, when mated with Dyna Tron, she produced 17-race winner Menzel Boys, who defeated another more than handy greyhound in Cairnlea Lewis in February’s 2016 Summer Classic (512 m) at Tara Raceway.
The following month he then ran third in the Mount Gambier Cup final (512 m) behind Mojito Mayhem and Danyo’s Frank in 29.83 seconds.
Also in that litter was Lethal Fury, a 24 kilogram winner of 10 races at Angle Park, Gawler, Strathalbyn and Tara Raceway where she was successful in a heat of the Summer Classic.
And Lethal Fury’s subsequent litter to My Bro Fabio in November 2017 resulted in two dogs and two bitches, one of them being a black dog that would later race for Hinrichsen as Balboa Fury.
A semi-regular at Tara Raceway, mainly for the club’s time-graded meetings, Hinrichsen had set his sights higher with Balboa Fury – earmarking the Winter Classic – the dog coming into the series as the pre-post favourite after a best of day win over 531 metres at Gawler five days prior to the heats.
While slowly away from box seven in his heat, he never really looked in any danger of defeat at what was his first look at the track, eventually running out a 3½ length winner over Close Your Eyes in a best of day 29.83 seconds.
In between the heat and final, Hinrichsen had then opted to race Balboa Fury up the straight over 350 metres at Murray Bridge, where he won, the long-time trainer explaining his reason for the mid-week race.
“To be honest, he’s anything but a hard worker. In fact, he’s so laid back that I have to virtually drag him off his bed so I was keen to get another gallop into him prior to the classic final.”
Slowly away from box eight, the long odds-on favourite always looked to have the race in his keeping, taking over the running from Silent Jacko off the back before finishing strongly to defeat kennelmate Stiff Upper Lip by six lengths with a further length back to the early leader.
Balboa Fury’s time of 29.84 seconds was a race record, eclipsing Smart Knocka’s time of 29.85 seconds recorded in last year’s Winter Classic.
“He’s the best I’ve had in a long time,” said a delighted Hinrichsen who gradually broke the dog in himself, commencing the education process at 12 months of age and completing it some five months later.
Smart Knocka was runner-up in last year’s SA Derby at Angle Park for Tracie Price and Hinrichsen will now go down the same path this year with Balboa Fury.
“At the moment I’m looking at sticking with the age-restricted races,” he said. “The SA Derby heats will be run on September 12 with the $35,000 final a week later. Then there’s the Classic 2019 Preludes at Angle Park prior to the $37,500 Brian Johnstone.”
These days Hinrichsen has something like 60 dogs in his care, a far cry from the early 1980s when he was based in the Adelaide suburb of Plympton Park and racing a giveaway greyhound called Bundy And Coke.
A daughter of Magic Typhoon and Dark Marabou, the 21 kilogram Bundy And Coke at one stage was being trained for Hinrichsen in Queensland where she clocked 54.80 seconds to break the Ipswich 875 metres track record.
Meanwhile, the win of Cee Me Shine, who ran down tearaway leader Zippy Zuri to score narrowly in the Fairthorne Forestry Stake (400 m), was quite appropriate considering her breeding.
By Cosmic Rumble, Cee Me Shine is out of Cee Me Burst (Nitro Burst x Oh Cee Ya) who defeated Houdini Spell to win the 2015 Winter Classic, along with seven other races in a 25-start career.
Last Sunday’s win was Cee Me Shine’s third in a row for Dean Fennell who trains the blue bitch for the Bursting Through Syndicate which is managed by Scott Brandon, also a part-owner of Dyna Quota, a 731 metre winner at Angle Park last Friday for Portland trainer Nicole Stanley.