Thursday, December 20, 2018

Tara Raceway track watchers will tell you that there are plenty of promising youngsters being put through their paces at the moment at Tuesday and Saturday morning trial sessions.

This augurs well for the forthcoming Val and Col Sims Memorial Maiden (512 m), heats of which will be run on Sunday, January 13 at Tara Raceway and the final a week later.

And also for the Summer Classic, an age-restricted non penalty event run in February over 512 metres for dogs and bitches whelped on or after January 1, 2017. First run in 2015, the classic has been won by Cryer’s Ricky, Menzel Boys, Hutch and Galactic Panther.

One early classic contender could be Samprass, an impressive virtual all the way winner of last Sunday’s Laser Electrical Stake (512 m) by 6½ lengths in a solid 30.05 seconds for Murray Bridge owner Anthony Lapinskas and trainer Don Turner of Lewiston.

Whelped in March 2017, Samprass is by little-known sire Shoulders – a son of Cosmic Rumble and Bit Stressed, and a winner of 15 races and $90,000 in stakemoney – out of seven-race Adelaide winner Pinkachu.

Accompanying Turner down to Mount Gambier last weekend was Lapinskas’s father, Algi, who has known the trainer for more than 40 years and who actually purchased the straw to Shoulders.

“My brother-in-law, Adrian Chevalier, bred and reared the litter, Anthony receiving a dog pup – later to race as Samprass – in return for the straw,” Algi Lapinskas said.

Samprass has now raced on 14 occasions for five wins and four minor placings, Turner saying later that he would be giving the Summer Classic serious consideration.

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