It took a while – 30 starts, actually – for Blazing Beth to finally open her winning account for North Bendigo trainer Aaron Blake.
Blake returned to Tara Raceway on Sunday for a third consecutive week with Wally Heras’ daughter of Fernando Bale and city-winning stayer Bonnie Beauty.
And on the back of a fast-finishing second behind the Nifty Lenehan trained Mrs. Cameron the previous week, the fawn December 2019 whelping turned the tables on another Lenehan-trained runner in My Madonna in the Produce Store Maiden Stake (400 metres).
As far as Blake is concerned, Blazing Beth’s number of starts for her first win pales into comparison with another of his former greyhounds in Kiss Me Donkey. She took 53 starts to open her winning account back in May 2012 at the local track.
The daughter of Talk’s Cheap and Senni Ace won a further two races later that year, both rounds of the Michael Niele sponsored Berringa Park Iron Dog. That was sufficient for Kiss Me Donkey to win the title.
Accompanying Blake yesterday was his younger brother Calum, these days based at Maryborough. He also owned Kiss Me Donkey and was on course in December 2012 when she won the Iron Dog.
Meanwhile, back at Tara Raceway on Sunday, litter sister Adelong, after two impressive 512 metre wins at the Mount Gambier track, experienced little trouble despite finding herself graded into a 400 metres event.
Always on the pace behind Mr. Bellagio in the Bartholomew Pick 6 Stake, she finished powerfully for a 1½ length win over the early leader in a best of the day time of 23.10 seconds. Her 512 metre win the previous week had also been in a best of day 29.81 seconds.
And while these days it’s not altogether a novelty for greyhounds to be wearing blinkers in a race, Blake said Adelong’s fortunes had certainly taken a turn for the better after he had decided to run her with only one blinker.
“After she had copped a 28 day suspension for failing to chase I decided to try her in a two-blinker muzzle. But she pulled up,” he said.
“Then, as a last resort, I opted for just the one blinker so she was still fully aware of what was happening on her inside. So far that seems to have done the trick.”