Thursday, June 20, 2019
That enduring greyhound Hutch was back among the winners last Sunday – for a 26th time. And Iron Dog aside, the win was the feel-good story to come out of Tara Raceway.
The win – his 20th at the track – was his first since April 7 when he had defeated Wanchai Express over 512 metres in a best of day 29.85 seconds. A week later he was on the sidelines with an Achilles tendon injury.
Hutch, who was off the scene for six weeks, came into last Sunday’s Williams Crane Hire Mixed Stake (512 m) on the back of three runs in May and early June – no wins, but Portland trainer Robert Halliday more than happy just to see the son of Premier Fantasy and Cairnlea Ellie get around unscathed.
At his fourth run back and lining up from box four for start number 40 at the track and distance, Hutch was always on the pace, rounding up early leader Swift Limes down the back before running out a 1½ length winner over Dyna Naitch in 29.81 seconds.
This was yet another winning comeback, Halliday listing off some of the setbacks that the black dog had encountered during a racing career that kicked off on January 6, 2017 when he ran fourth to McIvor Neville in a heat of the Sims Memorial at Tara Raceway.
“For sure, Hutch has been a very challenging greyhound to train and without the help of my wife Shirley it’s probably fair to say that he wouldn’t be racing now or have won anywhere near as many races,” he said.
“But, as far as Hutch is concerned, the time and effort put into him has certainly been worthwhile.”
Hutch will now be back at Tara Raceway on Sunday, jumping from box one in The Border Watch Free For All (512 m), the race being the highlight of the 12-race program.
This is a fair sort of race with Swift Limes, Kolora Posie, Iron Dog winner Cryer’s Plugger, Wanchai Express and Lektra Brandy, a Horsham winner on Tuesday, making up the remainder of the field.
Meanwhile, in the previous race last Sunday – the Winmore Greyhound Kennels Stake (512 m) – another greyhound to successfully return from an Achilles tendon injury was the Nicole Stanley trained Ethics.
Owned in Adelaide by Michael Groves, Ethics hadn’t raced since running second to Cairnlea Jet over 731 metres at Angle Park in March.
Reported to have been trialling well, the daughter of Dyna Double One and Kalden Blanco was always going to be hard to hold out when in a handy position mid-race.
And in the run home the black bitch was simply too strong, defeating the front-running Danyo’s Cally by a neck with Galactic Destiny, also having her first run since March, running a good race to finish third in 30.25 seconds.
Stanley, who has enjoyed plenty of distance success this year with Dyna Quota, is now hopeful of getting Ethics, a 731 metre winner at Angle Park earlier this year, back to the city track for further staying races.
PICTURED: Top – Hutch returns to the winner’s list when defeating Dyna Naitch at Tara Raceway last Sunday. Ethics (No. 7) also made a successful return to racing with a strong-finishing win over Danyo’s Cally.