The sixth running of the Peter Whitehead Memorial at the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club’s recent Christmas meeting resulted in Hey You Guys joining previous winners Elle Limes, Sally Limes, Smiling Stan, Compton Robbie and High On Life.
And once again members of the Whitehead family threw their support behind the 400 metre maiden event – the winner trained at Worrolong by Steve Bartholomew for his daughter Deb and her husband Craig Hicks.
By Blue Moon Rising out of Galactic Athena, who Bartholomew trained to win the 2019 Mount Gambier Cup, Hey You Guys went into the final with a race record of three seconds from three starts.
But from box eight she quickly put herself in the race before finding the front turning for home and running away to a two length win over Way Cool – Compton Robbie’s kennelmate – in 23.26 seconds.
Craig Hicks’ involvement in greyhound racing goes back some 10 years and to a dog called Sookie, a daughter of Superman and Sisco Train who won 14 races prior to being mated with Premier Fantasy, Premier Boloney and Fabregas.
“Getting back into the game came about when I was out at Steve’s one day and a black pup in one of his yards took my fancy,” he said. “I really fancied her but it was a while before Steve came around and agreed to sell her to us.
“I’d been looking to become involved again and to win the Whitehead Memorial with her was certainly a real thrill for all of us.”
As far as the Santa Sprint final (400 m) was concerned, the Catherine Roberts trained Lektra Tony had served notice the week prior in a heat that he was going to be hard to beat after equalling Minnie Banjo’s track record time of 22.42 seconds.
But a week can be a long time in greyhound racing, especially after Wario came up with box one in the final and Rocklea Earle found himself jumping from box three after Is He Lucky was scratched.
As it turned out, Wario, Rocklea Earle and Lektra Tony, from box two, settled in that order and that’s how they finished – Wario winning by 2¼ lengths in 22.94 seconds for Allendale East owner-trainer Kev Patzel.
A son of Pindari Express and Fiery Crash, Wario had won three races at Dapto and Grafton when Patzel purchased the black dog for $1000 in April this year.
Initially, David Peckham trained Wario for a win while Patzel anxiously awaited the arrival of his trainer’s licence. Since then the April 2021 whelping has won a further 12 races.
Patzel’s day wasn’t over yet, though. In the following race, the Cadillac Racing Stake (400 m), Aston Reims led all the way for a three-quarter length win over Barra Banjo in 23.04 seconds.
A son of Fernando Bale and Aston Chandon, Aston Reims, a giveaway greyhound, has now won four races since being taken over by Patzel at the end of August.
Meanwhile, in what has been an injury-interrupted career, Mr. Anderson brought up his third successive Tara Raceway win when leading all the way and defeating litter brother Bourne Nicko by 1½ lengths in the Merry Masters (305 m) in a time of 17.74 seconds.
Raced by Derek Anderson and Jason Newman and trained by the latter at Moorak, the son of Bernardo and Dusseldorp has now raced on 60 occasions for 20 wins and $46,000 in prize money.
Mr. Anderson was the fastest 2023 Mount Gambier Cup heat winner (512 m) when defeating Wharfie in 29.41 seconds. Later that year he won four races on Victorian provincial tracks.
But in 2024 the red fawn dog didn’t race until the middle of the year when winning twice at Tara Raceway in June prior to his winning streak in December.