Penshurst greyhound Smart Operator, after narrowly being defeated over 400 metres at Tara Raceway the previous week by Unique Destiny, turned the tables last week when leading all the way for a three-quarter length win in the Commercial Hotel TG5+W Stake in 23.28 seconds.
Owned and trained by John Cameron, the son of Allen Deed and Little Queeny has now won 10 races, four of those this year at Warrnambool and Mount Gambier.
And adding to his earnings early this year was a couple of consecutive local no races whereby the prize money had been split – one after a race fall and the other due to hot weather.
A winner of races at Warrnambool and Mount Gambier, Little Queeny, a daughter of US sire KC And All and Lektra Kelly (11 wins and $30,000 in prize money), recently whelped a second litter of two dogs and two bitches to Shima Shine.
Incidentally, the Cameron trained Camo’s Lucky won the first Newman McDonnell Memorial conducted at a Mount Gambier TAB meeting back in 2012.
Warrnambool husband and wife team Rob and Linda Gore continued on their winning way when landing a treble with members of their June 2023 Cosmic Rumble x My Girl Kizzy litter.
Having her first start, Naturally Girl displayed plenty of early pace from box four. She then matched strides with Mock Orange before taking over off the back and running out a 5¾ length winner over Cadillac Snoop in the Gordon Refrigeration Maiden Stake (305 m) in 17.96 seconds.
In the following race, litter sister Afterglow Girl, on the back of a maiden win the previous week, handled the step up in class when taking on a TG1-4W field in the Federal Hotel Stake (305 m).
Slowly away from box six, the black bitch took a while to get going but once into stride she finished off the race well when defeating Maggie May by 1½ lengths in 18.26 seconds.
Naturally Girl and Afterglow Girl are owned by the Warrnambool-based Jackson Bell, an apprentice linesman with Powercor. He purchased the litter sisters as pups from the Gores and reared the pair prior to returning them to the breeders for training.
Bringing up the litter treble was Moonlight Jazz who quickly settled on the pace from box eight in the Sealeys Springworks TG1-4W Stake (400 m) before finishing strongly for a 2¼ length win over Crowie Unleashed in 23.47 seconds.