A win for Hamilton trainer Lorraine Goodwin with Red To Burn at last Thursday’s time-graded meeting at Tara Raceway was the start of a good day for her and son Kyle who had ventured to Adelaide’s Angle Park with Kia Keeping.

Red To Burn, a son of Knocka Norris and Strength To Wyn, overcame a slow start from box one in the Federal Hotel TG5+W Stake (305 metres) and never left the rails when finishing strongly and defeating Fernando Lee by a length in 17.81 seconds.

And it was a win that had been a while coming given that the fawn dog’s previous win was back on September 4 last year when he defeated kennelmate Princess To Burn at Tara Raceway.

Kyle Goodwin had previously tasted city success at Victorian tracks The Meadows and Sandown Park but had yet to train a winner at Angle Park – SA’s major greyhound racing track.

However, all that changed last Thursday night when Kia Keeping lined up in the Sky Racing Stake (595 m) and led throughout for a half-length win over $1.20 favourite Just A Babe in a time of 34.45 seconds.

By Fernando Bale out of Ruby Keeping, the black bitch had won three races at Dubbo prior to finding her way over to WA. No joy there, though, after finishing down the line on six occasions at Cannington.

“That was when I received a call from WA suggesting Kia Keeping could be a good dog for me to race at Mount Gambier. All it would cost would be the air fare to get her back over to the other side of the country,” Goodwin said.

“So far she’s gone pretty well, having won eight races at Tara Raceway over 305 metres, 400 metres and 512 metres plus last week’s middle-distance win at Angle Park.”

Goodwin said he wasn’t sure about Kia Keeping from a Mount Gambier Cup perspective but he would probably race her over 512 metres at Tara Raceway next week and assess her forthcoming racing program from there.

“However, I am hoping to have Lie To Me, a winner of 16 races, line up in the cup heats on Sunday, March 29,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tylden-based “problem dog trainer” Dale Bunn was back among the winners at Tara Raceway last Thursday with Redemption Lass, a three-year-old daughter of My Redeemer and Merry Lass.

Lining up from box eight on the back of two previous second placings at the track, Redemption Lass quickly crossed the field in the Cadillac Racing Maiden Stake (305 m) before running out a 6½ length winner over Speechless in 17.87 seconds.

The black bitch is owned at Bendigo by Gary Webb who originally had sent her to Bunn when she refused to race in a field.

“Redemption Lass had caused Gary a few problems so he contacted me to see whether I could have a go at sorting her out. Later, she returned to Gary prior to finding her way back to me again. Mind you, her performance last week was a fair improvement on some of her previous efforts,” Bunn said.

“A lot of our time is spent on wayward dogs,” he said. “Often we will run them with older dogs in a bid to teach them what racing is all about. We also go to a variety of tracks and have found the finish-on-lure track here to be ideal in the re-education process.”

Rough Girl Mel was back among the winners for local owner-trainer Noel Perry when scoring a solid all the way 4¼ length win over Intuitive in the Gordon Refrigeration TG5+W Stake (305 m) in 17.74 seconds.

For the daughter of My Redeemer and Vossy, the win personified Perry’s patience with his greyhounds given that the blue bitch’s last win had been back on December 12, 2024 when she defeated Moonlight Comet by two lengths over 512 metres.

And another local trainer back among the winners was Allan Holmes who was successful with Moorak Sally – her first win since November last year after defeating Rough Girl Ruby and Cantara Pearl at consecutive Thursday meetings.

Drawn in box four in last Thursday’s Sealeys Springworks TG1-4W Stake (400 m), the daughter of My Redeemer and Galactic Mojo quickly took up the running and never really looked like being beaten when defeating Galactic Neutron by 1½ lengths in 23.17 seconds.

A Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club life member, Holmes also owned Moorak Hope, winner of the resurrected SA Country Cup which kicked off again at Gawler in November 2013.