It seems that the Peter Byrne trained Kick It Home is another one of those greyhounds that when racing on tracks with catching pens – and that’s most of them – pulls up prior to the return gate and then fails to enter the catching pen.
“It’s certainly made it difficult to race her in Victoria,” said the Koroit-based Byrne. “So with her good early speed I figured she was probably worth a try here at the Mount Gambier track which races with the finish-on lure and no catching pen.”
And on Sunday the black bitch displayed plenty of that early speed from box five in the Bartholomew Pick 6 Stake (400 metres). Leading all the way, she scored by a length in 23.19 seconds over Pirate Paddy, trained 40 minutes down the road from Koroit at Ecklin South by Peter Fulton.
The win was Byrne’s first at Tara Raceway since January when he was successful with Zambora Jay in the Razza Racing Feature Maiden final over 305 metres.
But his association with the Mount Gambier club goes back a fair way. In 2016, Unsub Andy ran a track record 35.04 seconds over 600 metres and the following year Arabella Figg finished second behind Fabregal in the Mount Gambier Cup final (512 m).
Kick It Home, a beautifully bred daughter of Fernando Bale and Dim Sim, was purchased by Byrne from Dailly Greyhound Farms after she had won a maiden over 450 metres at Ballarat.
“I certainly liked her breeding. Dim Sim was a handy racer while her dam, Shima Song, a Group 2 middle-distance winner, won 28 races and close to $300,000 in stakemoney. And the grand-dam, Shimaguni, was a winner of 21 races and $210,000.”
Byrne has now won four races with Kick It Home but it is his 11-year-old daughter Tessa who has claimed ownership of the November 2019 whelping – better known as Tilly.
Netball commitments kept Tessa away from the track on Sunday but soon after the win her father received the following text message to go with the story: “Tilly is my most favourite greyhound in the world. She wags her tail every time she sees me.”
Meanwhile, Hamilton trainer Tony Harding, a regular at Mount Gambier meetings, scored a good win on Sunday with giveaway greyhound Flatty Hunter in the Williams Crane Hire Stake (512 m).
Chasing her first win since May 10 when successful up the Murray Bridge straight at 100/1, Flatty Hunter finished over the top of Gypsy Boy in the home straight to win by 2½ lengths in 30.17 seconds.
Now a winner of four races, the daughter of Zambora Brockie and Lektra Viki is a litter sister to Lektra Rhino who is owned and trained by the breeder, Phil Lenehan of Toolong.
Lektra Rhino, who was a finalist in last Saturday night’s Group 1 Maturity at The Meadows, is a winner of 11 races and more than $44,000 in stakemoney.
Lektra Sammy, another member of the litter, was successful at last Thursday’s Mount Gambier time-graded meeting for Ararat owner-trainer Doug Hammerstein. And on the same day Harding won with another giveaway greyhound in the form of Penshurst Lass.
By Lightning Frank x Jimary Siesta, Penshurst Lass led all the way at start number 50 in the Carlin & Gazzard MG Stake (400 m) to defeat Cadillac Beast by 5¾ lengths in 23.64 seconds and bring up her second win.