Thursday, June 13, 2019
With a 600 metre third placing (and four points) in the first round of the Winning Post Supplies Iron Dog, Ecklin South greyhound Noosa Parade, in order to stay in contention, was always going to have to find plenty in last Sunday’s 732 metre second round at Tara Raceway.
And the 4½-year-old 108 start veteran certainly kept the hopes alive for the Warrnambool-based Geoff Lewis managed Noosa Syndicate and his 25-year-old trainer Peter Fulton when running down the odds-on favourite Cryer’s Plugger in the second heat.
Having only his second start over the staying journey, Noosa Parade gave the front-running favourite a fair start early but down the back started to get busy before finishing the stronger in the run home for a two length win in 43.76 seconds.
The son of Collision and Miss Black Fern has been based at Ecklin South for his entire racing career, Fulton describing the black dog as a real trier.
“He’s been a terrific dog for us although to be honest he would probably now be better placed to see out his racing career in an area such as Mount Gambier. In the meantime, though, we’ll continue to race him but we’re open to all offers.”
Noosa Parade’s win last week took him to 10 points and with two 512 metre heats on Sunday to wrap up the three-distance series he’s right in the mix, now only one point behind the joint leaders Dyna Quota, Black Spring and Cryer’s Plugger.
The Nicole Stanley trained Dyna Quota, winner of this year’s SA Distance Championship (731 m) at Angle Park, was the stand-out stayer of the Iron Dog and she needed a win in the second round in order to be about the place prior to the running of her 512 metre heat on Sunday.
The clash of Dyna Quota and Cap Abbott’s Black Spring, in what was the first 732 metre race run at Tara Raceway since the end of July last year, didn’t disappoint.
In the end, the daughter of Dyna Double One x Jayney Bale had 1¼ lengths to spare over Black Spring in 43.50 seconds – the second-fastest ever run at the track and only three-quarters of length outside Nellie Noodles’ eight-year-old track record.
And Abbott can lay claim to having the third-fastest greyhound to have gone around over the distance at Tara Raceway with Black Spring running 43.59 seconds.
Dyna Quota is raced by Glen Burns, Scott Brandon and Danny Fraser of the Cheap Buy Syndicate – well-named in view of the fact that they picked up the black bitch for $1000 last November.
The return of distance racing at Tara Raceway certainly added to last week’s meeting. Let’s hope we won’t have to wait another 11 months before seeing the stayers go around again on a Sunday afternoon.
Winning Post Supplies Iron Dog points after round 2: 11 Black Spring, Cryer’s Plugger, Dyna Quota; 10 Noosa Parade; 9 Cryer’s Bob, Spinning Jakit; 7 Kolora Posie; 6 Miss Jacky, Ruby’s Willow; 4 Good Yarn.