Monday, April 22, 2019
Allendale East greyhound Pirate’s Curse, after a trip to Adelaide’s Angle Park on Thursday when running a 1½ length third over 731 metres, backed up with a record-breaking win in Sunday’s Easter Challenge (600 m) at Tara Raceway.
As a rule, a greyhound with no early pace, the 35 kilogram son of Bekim Bale and Walkaway Jackie was never going to be beaten after going straight to the front from box one, in the end the solidly-backed favourite Black Spring doing well to run the leader to 3¾ lengths.
Especially after the posting of Pirate’s Curse’s track record winning time of 34.79 seconds which lowered McIvor Verna’s 34.84 seconds run on June 18, 2017, that record eclipsing Paraphernalia’s 34.97 seconds run only the week prior.
Pirate’s Curse, who joined David Peckham’s kennels in February, has now raced on nine occasions for the leading local trainer for three 600 metre wins at Tara Raceway, the track record Peckham’s second over the distance and third overall.
Striking Viking was the inaugural 600 metre record holder after a run on November 30, 2014 of 35.38 seconds which stood until March 8 the following year when Cheap Currency lowered the record to 35.11 seconds.
Incidentally, Striking Viking is the dam of Flash Jackie, who continued her promising form with a win in the South Eastern Hotel Stake (512 m), the final race on Sunday and the third leg of a treble for Peckham after Kolora Posie had also won earlier in the day.
Striking Viking’s litter sister Thanks Tubby, also trained by Peckham, ran a 29.60 seconds track record over the 512 metre journey on June 1, 2014. This time stood until June 11, 2017 when Brazen Bomber ran 29.55 seconds.
Pirate’s Curse is raced by leading Adelaide owners Tim Aloisi and Matt Lehman together with Damien Bates and Michael McSorley who purchased the NSW-bred dog from New Zealand, winning three races over 731 metres at Angle Park prior to the transfer to the South-East.
And it turned out to be an outstanding few days for the syndicate members – Honcho Monelli winning the Eastar Match Race Series at Angle Park on Thursday night while Waterloo Monelli won the Easter Cup (600 m).
Also on the Thursday night, Shima Mart was successful at Angle Park while Rajasthan won at Sandown Park.
Peckham said Pirate’s Curse was now likely to tackle the Bayroad Queen Stayers Cup (731 m), heats of which will be run at Angle Park on Thursday, May 2 with the $7000 final a week later.
Raced by Moonta Bay couple Merv and Glenys Pedler, Bayroad Queen, a daughter of Tegimi and Village Swallow, won the 1982 National Distance Championship and also the NSW Association Cup at Harold Park in the same year.
It was greyhounds such as Bayroad Queen who were responsible for the crowds flocking to Angle Park on a Thursday night back in the early 1980s.