The Mount Gambier Cancer Support Group is the latest local charity to benefit from the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club’s Tara Tipsters initiative.
Appreciative representatives of the Cancer Support Group were at Tara Raceway last Sunday to receive a donation following the running of the Tara Tipsters Cup, a 512 metre event for grade six greyhounds.
Now spreading from Terang to Adelaide, the number of tipsters supporting the weekly Thursday and Sunday greyhound racing meetings through their donations to the charity jar has grown considerably over the past three years.
It should be pointed out that this is strictly a “bragging rights only” competition. However, contestants take the challenge of outscoring one another seriously when attempting to accumulate sufficient points to win the overall series which runs for a couple of months.
The Cancer Support Group – “For Patients, For Families, For Friends” – now joins local charities such as the Sunset Community Kitchen and Foodbank to have received a Tara Tipsters contribution.
Other charities also include the Salvation Army Thrift Shop, the Visually Impaired Club, Four Reasons Why, Quaran and the Community Christmas Luncheon.
While the Tara Tipsters Cup comprised a fair sort of field, in the end it was the $21 outsider Cadillac Patch who won the event for Edenhope trainer Captain Abbott.
Slowly away from box three, Cadillac Patch settled in third spot down the back behind Two Fifty Three and Pursuit before railing through on the home turn and fighting out the finish with Two Fifty Three.
On the line Cadillac Patch had a neck and 1¾ lengths respectively to spare over Two Fifty Three and her litter sister Four Longnecks – the daughters of Elite State and Dusty Pearl trained locally by Adam Mackereth.
By Aussie Infrared, Cadillac Patch is out of 12-race winner Lady Bang Bang, a daughter of Fernando Bale and Kapalos.
“We picked him after he was advertised for sale as an 8-month-old pup on Greyhound Data. The purchase was mainly because Kapalos was by the Irish sire Premier Fantasy,” Abbott said.
“He’s one of the better ones that we’ve purchased with the big plus being that he runs out 512 metres.”
Incidentally, Kerry Hawker, Abbott’s partner and enjoying a successful year in her own right as a trainer, also organises much of the catching for interstate trainers on race days at Tara Raceway. And a fair amount of the catching fees also finds its way into the charity jar.