Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Hutch and Paraphernalia, the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club’s representatives in Friday night’s SA Country Cup (515 metres) at Angle Park, signified their readiness for the $7375 final when fighting out last Sunday’s Winningformula.net.au Stake (512 m) at Tara Raceway.
The two local Country Cup heat winners from September 23 on that occasion had run within a half-length of one another, Jeff Guy’s Paraphernalia clocking 29.88 seconds and Hutch 29.92 seconds for Robert Halliday.
Hutch subsequently went into the last Sunday’s final hit-out on the back of an excellent second over 515 metres at Angle Park on the previous Monday, Halliday being convinced to give the son of Premier Fantasy x Cairnlea Ellie a look at the track prior to the final.
And once again there was little separating the pair on the line in the Open event, Hutch showing good pace from box eight and settling in second spot behind Swift Limes before taking over off the back.
Meanwhile, Paraphernalia after jumping well from the seven, travelled well in fourth spot down the back straight before running home strongly to go down by only three-quarters of a length to Hutch in a best of day 29.74 seconds.
For Hutch, it was only his third run back after a three month break due to a toe injury, Halliday later reporting that his winner of 19 races appeared to have pulled up well.
An April 2014 whelping by Big Daddy Cool x Scrappy Coco, Paraphernalia – who was also one of Mount Gambier’s Country Cup representatives last year – will go into the final as the oldest runner and also the most experienced, having raced on 128 occasions for 33 wins.
Perhaps more importantly, though, he will go into the $5000-to-the-winner final from box one, Hutch, however, not faring so well after drawing the six, a box he has raced from on six occasions but yet to run a place.
The Halliday trained Tickets Please won the 2008 SA Country Cup at Gawler while Guy will be hoping for better luck this year after Paraphernalia’s luckless 2¾ length fourth from box six to Stick Figure in last year’s final at Angle Park.
Other previous Mount Gambier representatives to win the SA Country Cup include Nickelman (Gawler 1995), Moorak Hope (Gawler 2013) and Berry Bling (Strathalbyn 2016).
This year, Mount Gambier representatives Theo’s Thunder and Blazing Moment will fill the Country Cup reserve slots after running second in their respective heats on September 23.
Headlining SA greyhound racing’s biggest meeting of the year at Angle Park on Friday night will be the final of the Group 1 UBET Adelaide Cup (515 m), local trainer Tracie Price narrowly missing out on a spot in the final with his SA Derby runner-up Smart Knocka.
With only a handful of starts to his name, Smart Knocka ran a great race in his heat last week when finishing a half-length third to Real Simple and actually recording the sixth-fastest time of the 34 cup runners.
He’ll now line up tomorrow night from box seven in the Adelaide Cup Consolation (515 m) which carries a tidy $7495 to the winner.