Locally owned and trained greyhounds Bourne Model and Compton Gold sounded a warning for the forthcoming Cadillac Racing Mount Gambier Cup (512 m) when finishing second and third behind Darcy Dakota in last Sunday’s Group 3 $36,000 Murray Bridge Cup (455 m).
Always on the pace, the David Peckham and Tracie Price trained pair finished three-quarters of a length and 1¼ lengths respectively behind the Kerry Stagg trained Darcy Dakota whose winning time was 25.26 seconds.
Despite having dominated racing at Tara Raceway since the TAB was introduced on course in 2012, both Peckham and Price are still chasing their first Mount Gambier Cup success. However, Peckham’s father, Allen, was successful in 1994 with Argyle Sally.
Heats of the Mount Gambier Cup will be run on Sunday, March 30 with the final on Sunday, April 6. Preceding the heats will be the Calcutta which will be conducted at Tara Raceway on Friday, March 28, commencing at 6 p.m.
Meanwhile, after recently relocating, Michael Callanan made a successful first-time visit to Tara Raceway last Sunday with his veteran greyhound Nyah Nyah Demon.
“I recently relocated to a three-acre property at Wonwondah which is just outside Horsham,” he said. “So I decided I’d come over and check out the Mount Gambier track with Nyah Nyah Demon which I recently picked up primarily for breeding.
“She’s nicely bred, being by Zambora Brockie out of Zipping Spring and with 20 wins and more than $68,000 in prize money I thought she could have a bit going for her from a breeding point of view.”
Chasing her first win since last November at Geelong, Nyah Nyah Demon was only fairly away from box one in the Da’Leni Meats Masters (305 m).
But the 70-start veteran never left the rails and simply took the shortest way home when defeating littermates Mr. Anderson and Paw Some Storm by a half-length and a neck in a more than handy time of 17.43 seconds.
“I’ve now been involved with greyhounds for four years and today was my second winner, the first coming with Far Out Scout at Horsham last December. I certainly won’t forget my first trip to Mount Gambier in a hurry,” a delighted Callanan said.P