An outstanding all-the-way win in yesterday’s Rock’s Tavern Mixed Stake (512 m) by Fugacious now has her trainer Jeff Guy, of Laharum, setting his sights firmly on next month’s Mount Gambier Cup (512 m) at Tara Raceway.
Coming off an unplaced run in a heat of the Horsham Cup (485 m) behind a record-breaking Shima Shine, Fugacious carved out a best of day 29.66 seconds when defeating Rough In Vegas and Slick Fernando, that pair recording personal best times of 29.87 seconds and 29.92 seconds respectively.
And speaking after the race, Guy said he believed his daughter of Fernando Bale x Dark Smiffy was capable of running even quicker.
“I’ll probably give her a couple more runs here before the cup just to try and boost her confidence. To be honest, I’ll be surprised if she’s not running even quicker come cup time,” said Guy, who rates Mount Gambier as his favourite track.
Fugacious was the first leg of a running double for Guy who followed up with Numinous, who led all the way to defeat Ed Deeds and Saint Charlotte in the Bourne Kennels Mixed Stake (400 m), also in a best of day time of 22.96 seconds.
The son of Fernando Bale x Backflip Kitty was having his first run back since defeating Slick Fernando over 400 metres on January 17 in 23.32 seconds. His trainer now has him also earmarked for the cup.
It’s now been three years since Guy rugged up Paraphernalia for the Mount Gambier Cup final, ultimately won by Xtreme Caution.
But 2018 was a big year for Paraphernalia. He also reached the final of the Anniversary Cup, won the Iron Dog, represented Mount Gambier in the SA Country Championship at Angle Park and won the Mount Gambier Greyhound of the Year.
All told, the fawn son of Big Daddy Cool x Scrappy Coco raced on 146 occasions for 37 wins, 38 minor placings and $83,000 in stakemoney.
And while on the subject of the Mount Gambier Cup, Ben Boers of Portland reports that Lots Of Yap, winner of the 2015 cup, has been mated for a second time.
Her first litter, by Nitro Burst, so far has produced 34 winners. Her second mating is to Glen Gallon, a winner of 37 races and close to $620,000 in stakemoney. This service was part of the 2015 Mount Gambier Cup winner’s prize.
Meanwhile, as luck would have it, a scratching resulted in first starter Norket Boy, a son of Barcia Bale x Clairvoyance, gaining a run from box five in the Winningformula.net.au Maiden Stake (305 m).
As it turned out, the black dog had a bit on his opposition when running out a 3¾ lengths winner over Saint Eilish in 17.78 seconds. In fact his time was quicker than that of Wilbur Deeds in the previous race, the Masters winner bringing up his fourth consecutive win, this time in 17.94 seconds.
Whelped in February 2019, Norket Boy, who was formerly based in Victoria, is raced by the Nick Cutri managed OTB Syndicate and has been trained at Tarpeena since mid-January by Dita Mitchell who said the dog had been relocated for a change of environment.
Currently, a maiden 305 metres is being run at Sunday meetings with the event being graded youngest-up. In other words, with the minimum racing age in SA being 16 months, the youngest greyhounds fitting the criteria are the first to be included.