Friday, June 22, 2018
A double, a quinella and a first winner for three hobby greyhound trainers highlighted Thursday afternoon’s time-graded meeting at Tara Raceway.
The Mumbannar training team of Jen and Monty Wilson endured something of a slow start to the season, their first winner not coming until April when give away greyhound Miss Zorro broke a seven month drought to score at the local track.
However, things have picked up a bit since then – Drysdale Creek and Miss Zorro both winning on Thursday, bringing up the couple’s sixth winner this year and their first double since October 2016 when Podium Bound and Podium Time were successful at Tara Raceway.
Drysdale Creek, a son of Cosmic Rumble and Queensland city winner Capella, came into The Border Watch Stake (512 m) with two wins to his name and looking some chance after running a one length third behind Destini Montana the previous week.
As it turned out, the form held up, the brindle dog – another giveaway picked up by the Wilsons – despite being worse than mid-field early, finishing strongly in the home straight to defeat Oemi Allen and Viking Storm in 30.51 seconds.
Miss Zorro led all the way from box one in the winningformula.net.au Stake (400 m), never really looking like losing when finishing 1¼ lengths clear of Mr Perfect, trained by Kevin Ashton who also provided the third placegetter, Dimora Bekim.
By Spring Gun, Miss Zorro is out of Gone Baby Gone, a half-sister to Chilly Babe who is the dam of 2018 Mount Gambier Greyhound of the Year contender Chilly Kiss.
Cape Bridgewater owner-trainer Scott Blacksell, a Tara Raceway regular, also brought up his sixth winner for the year when Pinecutter Pete led all the way in the Greyhound-Data.com Stake (512 m), defeating his litter sister and kennelmate Gotta Wobble Up by four lengths in a personal best 30.55 seconds.
By Magic Sprite, the littermates are out of Miss Shirleen, a daughter of Bekim Bale x Swift Blaze and an older full sister to Usain Insane who upset the Nicole Stanley-Nifty Lenehan seven-dog team to impressively win Thursday’s Klaassens Contractors Stake (400 m) in a best of day 23.25 seconds for Allendale East trainer David Peckham.
Pinecutter Pete’s win was Blacksell’s second success in the space of four days, Rusty Sprocket, a nicely bred daughter of Fabregas x Guru Doll, making a successful return after a three-month break when defeating Lektra Brandy over 400 metres at the previous Sunday’s meeting.
And Dita Mitchell, who lined up last week with Jeanie’s Gem – her first runner as a trainer – didn’t have to wait long to lead in her first winner.
After a luckless first-up seventh, the daughter of Banjo Boy x Jeanie’s Wish made amends on Thursday for the Tarpeena-based Mitchell when leading all the way in the Winmore Greyhound Kennels Maiden Stake (400 m) for a three length win in a more than handy 23.59 seconds.