As Penola hobby trainer Stuey Sharam tells it, the arrival of former Victorian greyhound Sharp Thief into the family’s kennels back in early October came about by pure chance.
“For a while now, together with my wife Pat and our son Liam, we had been helping out Tracie Price with boxing and catching his greyhounds at Tara Raceway’s Sunday meetings.
“In fact, when we returned to the sport after quite a few years’ absence, Tracie had set us up with a dog that we could race ourselves – Donny Rocks – and he had been our last winner back in June this year.
“But with Donny retired and Liam’s pup sidelined there hadn’t been anything happening here from a racing point of view until Tracie – from out of the blue – came up with another greyhound for us to train if we were interested.
“Not surprisingly, his kennels were full and he had been contacted by Kiah Hurley of Two Wells to see if he was interested in a white and blue bitch that went by the name of Sharp Thief.”
And there didn’t appear to be too much wrong with her breeding. By Fernando Bale, she is out of Millett, a winner of nine races on Victorian provincial tracks.
Hurley, who won this year’s Cadillac Racing Mount Gambier Cup with Chapel Road, hadn’t raced Sharp Thief – a winner of two races at Ballarat and one at The Meadows – who had been in her kennels for only a couple of weeks.
According to Sharam, the family probably didn’t have much to lose by accepting Price’s offer
On Saturday, November 9 Sharp Thief lined up from box eight over 410 metres at Horsham for her new trainer and new owner in Wayne Smith, a harness racing steward based in Mildura.
And she gave plenty of cheek, eventually going down by a half-length when finishing third in 23.38 seconds.
Sharp Thief stepped out for the first time at Tara Raceway last Sunday, looking well placed in the grade six Tara Tipsters Ryder-Cheshire Stake over 512 metres.
This was another of the races for a local charity with the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club-based Tara Tipsters in this case making a donation to the Ryder-Cheshire Home Foundation which was represented on track by Bernadette Douglas and Greg Clayfield.
Residing in one of the homes had been Kevin Clayfield, a brother of Greg and Glenroy trainer Richard. He died in October 2022, with Sunday’s race being run on what would have been his 60th birthday.
In his younger days Kevin, or KC as he was commonly known, often accompanied Richard to the track and helped out his brother with catching duties – Bright Option winning the first race run at the Lake Terrace East track in January 1997.
As far as the race went, the Sharam family landed their first win in six months after Sharp Thief led all the way from box two for a terrific win over Bourne Sid in 29.74 seconds.
And young Liam appeared mighty pleased when receiving the trainer’s trophy – an Andrew Earl hand-crafted leather collar and lead with “Tara Tipsters” stamped on the collar.
Meanwhile, long-time Koroit breeder-owner-trainer Garry Anders, from a win point of view, enjoyed his best day ever at Tara Raceway when landing a litter treble with Ollie Deeds, Bert Deeds and Chester Deeds. Collectively they have now won 22 races.
The trio is from the February 2022 litter of 11 dog pups by Sennachie out of Beaut Deeds, who won her maiden at Mount Gambier in September 2018 over 400 metres. All told, the daughter of Dyna Double One and Mepunga Lana won seven races.
Kicking off the treble in the Cadillac Racing Stake (400 m) was Ollie Deeds who took the lead down the back straight before running out a 3½ length winner over Patrice Lass in 23.22 seconds.
Then it was Bert Deeds who made a real mess of the Produce Store Stake (400 m) field when quickly crossing the field from box seven before running away to an eight length win over Turning Oak in 23.25 seconds.
Bringing up the treble was $16 outsider Chester Deeds who led all the way from box one and defeated Wario by three lengths in 23.18 seconds in what was a pretty tidy Carlin & Gazzard Open Stake (400 m).
“I’ve been involved with greyhounds for more than 40 years,” said Anders after the last race. “But for sure I reckon this is the best day I’ve ever had at the dogs.”
And just to wrap up the day, Anders also won the weekly Da’Leni Meats members meat tray draw.
