Following the running of last Sunday’s heats, the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club doesn’t appear to have fared too badly as far as its SA Country Cup representatives for the Friday night meeting at Angle Park on October 10 are concerned.

Two 512 metre heats had been run at Tara Raceway with High Cube and Raven Peter now set to take on the winners of both Murray Bridge and Gawler’s two heats in the $10,000 final over 530 metres on Adelaide Cup night.

In Mount Gambier’s first heat it was Swift Gift who led the way early from box one with High Cube moving into second spot down the back before finishing strongly in the run home for a 1¾ length win over Bourne Sid in 30.06 seconds.

Owned and trained at Portland by Shirley and Robert Halliday, High Cube is a nicely bred brindle son of Flying Ricciardo and Miami Fernando and has now won nine races.

In the second heat, Raven Peter never looked like being beaten when leading all the way from box one and running out a 3¼ length winner over Wind Whiskers in 29.89 seconds.

Owned in Adelaide by Justin Tribe, Raven Peter is a son of Aston Rupee and My Black Raven and trained at Compton by Tracie Price.

It was back in 2008 that the Halliday trained Tickets Please won the Country Cup at Gawler. But the demise of greyhound tracks at Port Lincoln, Whyalla, Port Pirie, Kulpara, Barmera and Strathalbyn (later replaced by Murray Bridge) looked to have put paid to the SA Country Cup.

In 2013, though, the Country Cup was back again, taking in the country tracks still operational at the time – Gawler, Strathalbyn, Mount Gambier and Port Augusta.

And Mount Gambier was successful that year at Gawler when Moorak Hope won the cup for Moorak owner Allan Holmes and trainer Tracie Price. Then in 2016 Nicole Stanley followed up for Mount Gambier at Strathalbyn with Berry Bling.

Back then the final was shared between Gawler and Strathalbyn and coincided with those clubs’ cup nights. However, in 2017 the SA Country Cup was switched to Angle Park where it now run in conjunction with the Adelaide Cup.

Representing Murray Bridge this year will be Time To Fire (Damien Smith, 29.91) and Robert Chuck’s locally owned Galactic Nemesis (Lauren Harris, 30.01). Gawler’s representatives are White Owl (Vadim Roz, 30.92) and Wicket (Robyn Mackellar, 30.83).

Curdievale Rhode, raced by the Hickey family and trained at Southern Cross by Ray Mahony, opened his winning account at Tara Raceway in the Klaassens Contractors Stake (305 m).

Previously a maiden winner at Geelong back in August, the son of Bernardo and Crimson Vixen – a winner of 18 races and $175,000 in prize money – led all the way from box four when defeating Big Solomona by three-quarters of a length in 17.75 seconds.

Curdievale Rhode jumped considerably better last Sunday with Mahony suggesting the improved box manners could have been due to the fact that he had opted for no stir-up and the fawn dog appeared calmer in the boxes.

Meanwhile, Allendale East trainer David Peckham has boosted his staying stocks with the recent addition to the kennels of staying types Fantastic Helga and Terrific Bobby, along with Fantastic Ada. The trio had been moved on by the Chegia kennels at Sellicks Hill to make way for younger stock.

Fantastic Helga, owned at Murray Bridge by Becc Weinert, made her Mount Gambier debut last Sunday in the Trackside Pet Meats Pick 6 Mixed Stake (732 metres) – the first staying race to be run at the track in a number of weeks.

By Superior Panama out of Fantastic Flossy, Fantastic Helga led all the way from box two and was never going to be beaten when running out a 5¾ length winner over Springvale Rita in 43.75 seconds.
And Peckham was full of praise for his timid dark brindle bitch and hopeful that perhaps some form of resurgence may be generated in the staying ranks at Tara Raceway.

“Fantastic Helga and Terrific Bobby ran first and second over 680 metres at Murray Bridge in early September. They’re both down here now so it would be nice to be able to promote a few more staying races because they certainly do add to the day,” he said.

“I still hold fond memories of my time with Maximum Refusal who all told raced on 154 occasions for 30 wins over distances ranging from 350 metres to 732 metres. And Warringah Bale was also performing well down here 12 months ago over the distance.”