Coleraine husband and wife training team, Steve and Sindy Colpoys, were back among the winners at Tara Raceway’s time-graded meeting last Thursday.

This time it was with Storm Shelter, the son of Zinzan Brooke and Shotgun Doll chasing Shell City for much of the 400 metre journey in the Metal Worx 1-4W Stake before grabbing a half head win in 23.55 seconds.

The win was the first for the Colpoys at Tara Raceway since August-September 2019 when Ima Maldini won three races in a row over 512 metres at the Mount Gambier track.

And as Steve Colpoys tells it, Storm Shelter – a maiden winner up the straight at Murray Bridge in October prior to last Thursday’s second win – has well and truly tested the pair’s patience.

“He’s one of Heathmere breeder-trainer Garry Marshman’s line and while he’s had a bit of success with litter sister Jean Crisp it had been a different story with Storm Shelter. So much so, that he was looking to place him in the Victorian Greyhound Adoption Program (GAP).

“But Sindy really loved the brindle dog and as we didn’t have any other racing greyhounds at the time we decided to have a go with him.”

Colpoys said Storm Shelter’s biggest problem was that he was a really bad box dog.

“Such were his box manners that twice he went back to breaking-in for re-education. But what we have found is that he does now seem to jump better from odd-number boxes.

“Without really knowing, it could be that being slightly longer in the boxes prior to jumping is giving him a little more time to become balanced and is working in his favour.”