It’s now been 15 years since Ken Gillespie, Jack Peacock, Steve Bartholomew jnr and Robert Chuck – all local workmates at the time- decided to put in a few dollars each and purchase a racing greyhound from Kevin Mugavin of Killarney.
The dog in question was Modern Joy, a daughter of Carlisle Jack x More Reward and a winner of a couple of races at Horsham over 480 metres. Modern Joy then followed up with four wins at Tara Raceway for her new owners.
Since then, there have been plenty more winners, including Magic State, Magic Elite, Scull Magic, Cape Roxy, Sharkaris, Galactic Tsunami and in more recent times Faster Bolt. Faster Bolt, who was bred by Chuck, won 15 races at Mount Gambier, Warragul, Horsham, Warrnambool and Ballarat and continued to ensure the syndicate has never had to draw on its reserves.
At last Thursday’s time-graded meeting at Tara Raceway, the syndicate’s Cyclone Bolt, also bred by Chuck, lined up for her second start in the Williams Crane Hire Maiden Stake (400 metres). And Cyclone Bolt’s narrow win over Saint Hannah in 23.73 seconds gave the Mount Gambier-based Gillespie his first win as a trainer since Faster Bolt was successful at Tara Raceway 12 months ago.
The winner is a July 2019 whelping by Dyna Lachlan out of Storm Allen, a daughter of Bekim Bale x Horizon Bale and a winner of six races including two over 643 metres at Gawler. With breeding in mind, Chuck was able to pick up Storm Allen at the end of her 74-start racing career in December 2015 from Adelaide.
However, he said the Dyna Lachlan litter went close to never eventuating. “To be honest, I’d just about given up on her ever coming in season,” Chuck said. “In fact, she had actually been booked in for a GAP (Greyhounds as Pets) assessment when she came in season.”
As it turned out, there was then further success for the litter when the Chuck owned and trained Galactic Medusa scored an impressive win on debut in the Metal Worx Maiden Stake (305 metres) at Tara Raceway’s Sunday meeting.
Jack Be Quick turned in a strong performance when leading all the way to defeat American Mustard by 31⁄2 lengths in 23.59 seconds in Thursday’s Winningformula.net.au Maiden Stake (400 metres) for Glencoe owner-trainer Dean Fennell.
Bred by Karen Price, the winner is by Peter Rocket out of Stylish Moment, winner of the inaugural Winter Classic (512 metres) at Tara Raceway back in 2014. And the litter has had a good start to the year with five winners at the local track.
Fennell picked up Jack Be Quick as a giveaway pup from the breeder’s husband, Tracie, who had been rearing the litter at Compton but encountered problems with the white and black youngster when he struggled to interact with his littermates. And after breaking-in, Fennell was given a somewhat ambiguous report which suggested the dog had a big motor and lots of ability.
All he had to do was to get it out of him. That’s exactly what his trainer did last Thursday.
