With the Murray Bridge Greyhound Racing Club looking for a day meeting on Sunday, March 9, in order to avoid the roar of the engines that night at the next door speedway, Mount Gambier will accommodate the club by starting later at Tara Raceway.

Twice now, in the past 10 years, the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club (MGGRC) has raced in the ‘twilight’ zone – the last time being on Boxing Day in 2019 when racing commenced at 2.38 p.m. and concluded at 6.31 p.m.

Sharing the training honours at that meeting were Tracie Price and David Peckham with four winners each – Price with Miss One Love, Tandiki, Vossy and Raw Luxury while Peckham was successful with Usain Insane, Dyna Carnie, Bourne Birdie and Sweet On Me.

The previous later start meeting had been held on Sunday, February 9, 2014. Back then the 400 metre track record was held by Garry Marshman’s Star Doll in a time of 23.05 seconds. And the 512 metre record stood to the credit of Robert Halliday’s Half Way Home in 29.79 seconds.

The 10-race card had kicked off at 4.25 p.m. with a win by Sassy Anna, trained by Tracie Price, and wrapped up at 7.16 p.m. with the Brian Weis trained In This Way winning the last.

Other winners were Rellim Joshua (Noel Miller), Our Dot (Scott Blacksell), Monarco (Captain Abbott), Slipper’s Might (Richard Clayfield), Remonstrate (Ray Keating), Teddy’s Moment (Tracie Price), Rouse Flyer (Barry Shepheard) and Chilly Patch (Allen Williams).

Interestingly, by the end of the next month Slipper’s Might, a son of Lochinvar Marlow and Slipper’s Tonic, had become the first runner to break the 400 metre 23 seconds barrier with a time of 22.93 seconds.

And that time stood as the track record until January 30, 2015 – the Peter Franklin trained Ireland’s Oyster running 22.83 seconds when defeating Westlake Prinz by 12½ lengths.