Sunday, May 24, 2020
The decision of connections to place littermates Sweet On Me and Call Me Billy with leading Adelaide greyhound trainer Ben Rawlings of Lewiston paid dividends last Wednesday when the pair won their way through to this week’s inaugural $10,000 Murray Bridge Straight Track Cup final (350 metres).
Sweet On Me, winner of the Summer Classic at Tara Raceway earlier this year, was an easy straight track cup heat winner, clocking a record 18.78 seconds that actually stood for only 18 minutes before Lavish Pedro lowered the time to 18.76 seconds in the following heat.
A winner of 15 races in NSW, Lavish Pedro was having his first SA start for long-time West Croydon participant Richard Stasiak who was associated with a terrific greyhound called Lignite back in the 1970s.
Call Me Billy, a $41 chance, qualified for the final with a hard-fought victory over Danyo’s Sarah in the final heat when clocking 19.03 seconds and in doing so wrapped up a good day for the Barcia Bale x Call Me Gee litter.
Several minutes earlier, at The Meadows in Victoria, litter brother Nadali, owned by the breeder Noel Mugavin of Warrnambool and trained at Lara by Robert Britton, overcame early trouble to score a really good win over 525 metres.
Both Sweet On Me and Call Me Billy were purchased from Mugavin early in their careers – the former now raced by the Adelaide-based Nineofus Syndicate and David Peckham of Allendale East while the syndicate races Call Me Billy in partnership with Jason Newman of Moorak and Peckham.
The pair has drawn boxes three and seven respectively in Wednesday afternoon’s final which can be viewed on Sky Racing or the TAB App.
Following up last Thursday, Peckham continued his successful run as a trainer at Tara Raceway after Squishy Pea, Keen One and Dyna Alistair were winners at the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club’s 11-race meeting.
Squishy Pea, who is also raced by the Nineofus Syndicate, brought up his sixth win at the track this year when taking over the running from the consistent Raw Luxury turning from home before winning by two lengths in a personal best 22.88 seconds in The Border Watch Open Stake (400 m).
Keen One finished strongly to defeat Fernando Deeds by 1¼ lengths in a time of 23.33 seconds in the Greyhound-Data.com Stake (400 m) and gave Tarpeena owner Malcolm Keenan his third win this year with the black dog.
And Tim Aloisi and Matt Lehman’s Dyna Alistair also ran a personal best 29.77 seconds in the JB Irrigation Mixed Stake (512 m) when leading all the way to defeat a gallant Dusty Pearl by three lengths.