
As far as the forthcoming SA Country Cup series is concerned, littermates Rough Pearl and Dick Grayson couldn’t have hit form at a better time for locally-based mother and daughter team, Lee and Elysia Bartholomew.
Rough Pearl has just wrapped up an unbeaten August, achieving the rare feat of winning four races in succession at Tara Raceway over 600 metres and 512 metres.
By Dyna Double One x West On Jorji, the littermates clashed in last Sunday’s Progreyhoundtips.com Mixed Stake (512 m) and figured in a three-way go with another in-form chaser – Robert Halliday’s Shady Past.
Having only her second run back after a break, Dick Grayson, who returned a quite remarkable $396 place dividend, finished a close second behind her brother in a time of 30.03 seconds.
A maximum of two heats (512 metres) of the Mount Gambier division of the SA Country Cup will be run at Tara Raceway on Sunday, September 19.
The two winners, or first and second if only one heat, will represent the club in the $7500 final over 530 metres at Angle Park on Adelaide Cup night (Friday, October 8).
And Dick Grayson will clash again on Sunday in the Foodbank Mixed Stake (512 m) with Shady Past in what looks to be a pretty tidy sort of race.
Following the Foodbank race, a cheque, on behalf of the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club and the Tara Tipsters, will be presented to Lynne Neshoda, Branch Manager, Regional Foodbank Mount Gambier.
Another local charity to have benefited from Tara Raceway trackside participants’ involvement has been the Sunset Community Kitchen through the Catch for Cash initiative. Currently, the Tara Tipsters are working towards assisting the Visually Impaired Club of Mount Gambier.
Meanwhile, Greyhound Racing SA Strategic Projects Manager, Scott Wuchatsch, said this week that a set of starting boxes from the Gawler club should be delivered to Mount Gambier either on Friday or next Monday.
He said this would allow for the changeover of boxes and provide for the reintroduction of 732 metres racing at Tara Raceway.
One of the last distance races run at the track was in November 2019 when Nicole Stanley’s Dyna Quota – winner of the SA Distance Championship at Angle Park earlier that year – was successful in 43.85 seconds.
The current 732 metres record stands to the credit of Nellie Noodles at 43.45 seconds. This was run on Mount Gambier Cup day on March 27, 2011 when trained at Lara by Robert Britton who on the same day won the cup with Banger Harvey.
And a couple of Mount Gambier bred youngsters in the form of Nike Apache and Earthworm Jim impressed when winning heats of the Highway 31 Maiden Challenge (300 m) at Healesville on Tuesday.
Eight heats were decided up the straight with the winners contesting the $10,000-to-the-winner final on Sunday afternoon.
Bred at Compton by Karen Price, the pair is by My Redeemer out of Headline and raced by Lisa and Keith Hellmuth of Pearcedale.
Headline has two litters racing at Tara Raceway – by Peter Rocket and My Redeemer – and currently is Mount Gambier’s leading dam with 20 wins.
