Adelaide-owned Our Boy Thommo’s impressive win in last week’s Winter Classic final (512m) at Tara Raceway continued Compton trainer Tracie Price’s domination of the event, this year for dogs and bitches whelped on or after July 1, 2018.
Price won the inaugural classic back in 2014 with Stylish Moment, followed up the next year with Cee Me Burst before being successful again in 2018 with Smart Knocka who won in a then race record time of 29.85 seconds.
Three weeks later Smart Knocka ran second to Nervous And Weird in the Group 3 SA Derby (515m) at Angle Park. And another three weeks later he won the Adelaide Cup Consolation (515m).
Having his first start on the track, Our Boy Thommo ran a more than handy second placing the week prior in a heat of the classic, the white and black July 2018 dog then displaying further improvement in the final.
In fact, he was going to win the race a long way from home after stalking Glenville Rose down the back straight before running out a 3½ lengths winner over Proud Fernando. A further two lengths back in third spot was Heckle Me in a time of 30.18 seconds.
Meanwhile, somewhere in Adelaide a delighted Brett Thompson of Bonetti Transport Services was watching the race live on his phone.
Our Boy Thommo, a recent addition to the Price kennels after previously being trained at Lewiston by Troy Murray, is raced by a family syndicate that is managed by 44-year-old Thompson and also includes his wife Sarah and Jason and Michael Bonetti.
“About four years ago we decided to have a crack at greyhound racing and we’re certainly enjoying our involvement in the sport,” Thompson said.
“Our Boy Thommo was one of a couple of pups that we purchased from Brodie Jessup who bred the litter by Fernando Bale out of 23-race winner Scarp Missile.
“The other one now races as Our Boy Wolf and he made it a good week for us when winning at Angle Park a few nights’ prior to the Winter Classic win.”
Proud Fernando’s second placing in the classic gave Price the quinella. A half-brother to Smart Knocka, the son of Fernando Bale x Who’s Doing What was virtually out of the race by the time the field turned into the back straight.
But the blue dog picked himself up, got going again and, in what was a big run, just kept coming.
