It’s now been two years since Dale Bunn first raced greyhounds at Tara Raceway in Mount Gambier – a 10-hour round trip for the long-time Victorian trainer who is based at Tylden, about 10 minutes down the road from Kyneton.

And Bunn, when bringing Scarsdale Tiger over to race, had left nothing to chance when the brindle dog lined up in the Todd’s Photographics Stake, a maiden event over 305 metres at a Thursday time-graded meeting on April 13, 2023.

Lining up on the back of two unplaced runs at Ballarat and Warrnambool – and having his first start for Bunn – Scarsdale Tiger led all the way for a 7¾ length win in 17.75 seconds. But a few kilometres had gone into the win.

“I’d been keen to race him behind the finish-on lure but wanted to give him a trial on the track prior to racing so I made two 10-hour round trips over to Tara Raceway to give him a look,” he said.

“And when I came back for the second trial I could really notice the difference in the dog. He knew where he was and really wanted to get after the finish-on lure.”

Bunn made a couple more trips back to Mount Gambier that year – Calzaghe winning in September and Bright Moon in December. Both had been over and trialled at Tara Raceway prior to racing.

In fact, Bright Moon made the round trip to Tara Raceway on three occasions to trial prior to winning her maiden over 305 metres at the end of the year.

Bunn was back again last Thursday with a three-year-old son of Tommy Shelby and Mepunga Remi called Vision who was having his first race start in the Greg Martlew Autos Maiden Stake over 305 metres.

“Initially he wouldn’t chase and his owner, Gary Webb, asked me if I would be interested in having a go with him. Anyway, some weeks ago I brought him over to Mount Gambier and trialled behind the finish-on lure.

“Actually, he went pretty well but in the process dehydrated something shocking and lost a lot of weight. So then it became a case of taking him out for ‘Sunday afternoon drives’ in a bid to get him accustomed to travelling.

“Vision went into last Thursday’s race without having returned here for another trial so to be honest I had no idea how he would go.”

But Bunn needn’t have worried. Away well from box eight, Vision quickly found the front before running away to a 5¾ length win over Cherry Eminem in 17.64 seconds.

Meanwhile, Coleraine breeder-owner-trainer Bob Wombwell has done pretty well this year with his Sennachie x Serene Rose litter having now won six races at Tara Raceway – the latest being Eskimo Larry at last Thursday’s meeting.

All told, he’s now won 13 races, 11 of those on Victorian tracks and prize money of more than $33,000. But last week’s win turned out to be a real drought breaker.

“As it turned out, he hadn’t won a race since last year’s Mount Gambier Cup meeting when he was successful in the Winning Post Supplies 400 metre final,” Wombwell said.

“He continued to race until the end of the year but an injury then kept him off the track until April – his latest win coming at his second run back.”

Wombwell is now hoping to be able to carry on the line through litter sister Eskimo Fly, a winner of six races at Horsham and Warrnambool with a few quick winning times thrown in for good measure.

Another greyhound to make a successful return after having been “in the wars” was Smart Operator, owned and trained at Penshurst by John Cameron.

“It had been close to two months since he last raced after sustaining an Achilles injury,” he said. “And to be honest, given the field he had drawn I really didn’t give him much chance of figuring in the finish.”

But the $11 chance came out running from box seven and led all the way when defeating a slow-starting Galactic Artemis by two lengths in 23.26 seconds.

Now a winner of eight races, Smart Operator is by Allen Deed out of Little Queeny who is due to whelp her second litter next week – this time by Shima Shine.