Saturday, October 26, 2019
Dunolly training team Rick Boehm and Sandra Elmes were running hot on and off the track at Tara Raceway’s time-graded meeting last Thursday afternoon.
Not only was the weather warm, but the couple’s greyhounds also were on fire with Magic Octagon, True and Lil Black Jess all successful.
But True, having his first start at the track, was the standout, the black dog making short work of the 1-4 wins field in the Klaassens Contractors Stake (512 metres) when leading all the way to defeat Rooster by 8½ lengths in a pretty tidy best of day 29.92 seconds.
The giveaway’s win, his third since joining the Dunolly kennels in July, came on the back of a best of night performance earlier in the week at Shepparton where he won over 450 metres in 25.54 seconds.
By the US sire KC And All out of Benta Bale, a winner of 16 races and $90,000 in stakemoney, True is from a handy litter that also includes Boogie Shoes, a winner the previous day up the 350 metre straight at Murray Bridge.
Magic Octagon brought up his third 400 metre win at Tara Raceway in the space of six weeks when finishing strongly, after settling in second spot early, to defeat Close To Carnage by 4¼ lengths in 23.41 seconds in the Gambier Vets Stake (400 m).
He’s nicely bred, being by Black Magic Opal out of proven producer Reiko Bale whose previous litter, by Fabregas, included Molly Coaster, winner of this year’s Fairthorne Forestry Mount Gambier Cup Consolation (512 m).
And a win by Lil Black Jess, who came from second early to take the lead off the back before running out a 2½ length winner over early leader Pillar Creek in 23.78 seconds in The Border Watch Stake (400 m), took Boehm and Elmes’ tally of Tara Raceway wins this year to 23.
Time-wise, Jacobite Hammer wasn’t all that far behind True when leading all the way to win the only other 512 metre event on the program, the Winningformula.net.au Stake, in 30.13 seconds for Forest Reefs breeder and part-owner Jo Kerr who races the brindle dog in partnership with trainer Doug Hammerstein.
A Thursday regular with son Paul, the Ararat-based Hammerstein, who has now won eight races with Jacobite Hammer, a son of Swift Fancy x Moonshine Whippy, said the win would have been a great tonic for his wife Jeanette, currently not in the best of health and watching the race from home.
Charlton trainer Kevin Ashton has come up with another interesting greyhound in the form of Nitro Gee who came from well back in the South Eastern Hotel Stake (400 m) to defeat Hawkie by a half length.
The nicely-bred son of Kinloch Brae and Nitro Cee (a winner of 18 races and $110,000 in stakemoney) is the dog that was sold for $12,750 at last November’s Ready2Race sale at Bendigo.
Nitro Gee subsequently won races at Bendigo and Warragul the following month before losing all form. In September he was picked up by Ashton as a giveway, running two minor placings prior to the win.
And maybe the black dog that led all the way last Thursday to win the Gordon Refrigeration Stake (400 m) – only his second win in 43 starts and his first for many months – had been well-named back in January 2017.
Racing as No Photos, and these days owned and trained by Wade Green of Rockbank, he certainly hadn’t bothered too many race track photographers since his first start back in April 2017 at Bulli.
But for Green, who also supplied the runner-up, Dust Up, this had been a framed photograph 2½ years in the making.