Thursday, May 23, 2019
Locally owned and trained greyhound Galactic Titan soon put paid to a proposed trip to Murray Bridge after an outstanding effort at Tara Raceway last Sunday afternoon.
Raced by his breeder, Robert Chuck of Moorak, and trained at Worrolong by Steve Bartholomew, the 35 kilogram brindle dog went into the Greg Martlew Autos Open Stake (512 metres) with a record of four wins from four starts at the local track.
All told, the 21-month-old Galactic Titan had raced on only five occasions and realistically looked to face a fair task when taking on Tara Raceway’s best greyhounds that collectively had been around on more than 300 occasions for close to 80 wins.
But, it seems, reputations count for nothing when it comes to the Paddy Whacker x Galactic Rumball litter. After all, Titan’s sister Galactic Athena, raced in the same interests, had already re-written the record books with a win in March’s Fairthorne Forestry Mount Gambier Cup when barely out of the whelping box.
As such, Galactic Titan went into last Sunday’s main race as one of the main chances and, despite only an average start from box four, was good enough to have put himself in the race by the first turn before taking over down the back from the speedy front-running Springvale Alysa.
In the end, his 3½ length win in a best if day 29.69 seconds over 93-start veteran Cryer’s Plugger and Wanchai Express, a 2019 Mount Gambier Cup finalist, told the story.
Originally, Galactic Titan was set to contest a heat of a grade six series over 455 metres at Murray Bridge this Sunday night. Now he’s heading in a different direction.
Galactic Athena made her highly anticipated Angle Park race debut last week, looking well placed in a grade six bitches race over 515 metres but having never seen the track.
She was away well from box seven and after a momentary scare on the first turn she cleared the field, eventually running out a 9¾ length winner in a quick 29.66 seconds.
The littermates will likely make their way back to Angle Park in July for the Champion Puppy Classic (515 m), a time-honoured event that will ideally suit the August 2017 whelpings.
Galactic Athena was always going to head to Sandown Park tomorrow night for a heat of the Ron Nestor Memorial (515 m). Galactic Titan will now join her, neither greyhound having seen the track.
Four $5280-to-the-winner memorial heats will be run for greyhounds that are grade five at both Sandown Park and The Meadows – the final to be conducted at Sandown Park next Thursday night with the winner receiving $12,000.
Galactic Athena has drawn box four in the first heat while Galactic Titan will jump from seven in heat two.
It’s a big meeting at Sandown Park tomorrow night, highlighted by the Sandown Cup final (715 m) which carries $175,000 to the winner. Other $100,000-to-the-winner feature events include the Sapphire Crown (515 m) and the Harrison Dawson (515 m).
Portland trainer Nicole Stanley has drawn box six with Dyna Quota in the TAB Cup Night Stayers (715 m), which has a first prize of $15,000.
Meanwhile, Chuck said he would be more than happy if his latest brood bitch, Storm Allen, turns out to be half as successful as Galactic Rumball who is now in the Greyhound Adoption Program (GAP) after whelping litters to Milldean Panther and Paddy Whacker.
From the Milldean Panther mating came Faster Bolt, Galactic Cat and Galactic Panther, winner of the 2018 Summer Classic at Tara Raceway as well as third placegetter in the 2018 Mount Gambier Cup behind Xtreme Caution and Lektra Stomp.
And as an aside, Azumi Spirit, a best of day 400 metre winner last Sunday in 22.99 seconds, is a daughter of Azumi Touch who is a litter sister to Galactic Rumball.
By Bekim Bale x Horizon Bale, Storm Allen won six races at Geelong, Angle Park and Gawler (643 m) and is from the same litter as Allen Wake, a Victorian city-winning stayer that saw out his racing days at Tara Raceway.
Storm Allen has been mated with Dyna Lachlan and is due to whelp in early July although there was a time when Chuck was despairing of her ever coming on season.
“I had been waiting for something like three years to breed with her and in fact she was booked into GAP not long before she came on season. She’s now seven years old so this will be her only litter,” he said.