It was not the greatest start to the week for Moorak trainer Jason Newman who made the nine hours trip to Murray Bridge and back last week with Flying Fuels, Connie’s Entity and Betty’s Entity.
And it has to be said that given he was required to be at the track by 5pm and his last dog was drawn to race at 9pm it was always going to be a tiring sort of round trip – especially after the trio failed to finish in the placings.
But, by and large, greyhound trainers are a pretty resilient lot.
Three days later Newman was at Tara Raceway for last Thursday’s time-graded meeting and hoping for an improved run from Flying Fuels.
“Ironically, I only really had her in at Murray Bridge in order that her Adelaide owners Brad Lees and Alex Coombe could see her race. As it turned out, they could not make it to the track anyway,” Newman said.
Lining up from box two in last Thursday’s Exchange Printers 1-4 Wins Stake (400 metres), Flying Fuels chased Rip Tear into the home straight before finishing strongly for a 1½ lengths win in 23.78 seconds.
The win was her second, both at Tara Raceway, and the first for a delighted Newman who only recently took over the training of the daughter of Keybow and city-winning stayer Velocity Lilly.
“Flying Fuels was purchased as a pup by her owners and is their first greyhound.
“I certainly could not be happier for them,” he said.
“She’s not two years old until November so hopefully there’s more wins in her yet.”
But Newman’s day was not yet over.
Still to come was recent purchase Hot Diamond who he races with partner Melissa Freitag.
By Banjo Boy out of Paua To Avoid – a winner of 26 races and $86,000 in stakemoney – Hot Diamond had won only one race up the straight at Healesville before finding her way to Moorak last month.
However, her litter is not short on winning form – Astro Boy, Notoriety and Rhonda Lily all handy chasers.
And Run Like Jess, who has won 20 races and $134,000, heads up an impressive earlier litter by Fernando Bale.
Hot Diamond made her local debut in the Gordon Refrigeration 1-4 Wins Stake (512 m), Newman believing the extra distance may have been to her liking.
“I had trialled her a couple of times over 512 metres at the track and she had run 30.70 seconds and then followed up with 30.30.
“So I was confident enough she would handle herself pretty well in last Thursday’s race,” he said.
“She was a fair way back early but down the back she started to unwind.
“I was really pleased with the way in which she stormed home to win 30.16 seconds.”
And all of a sudden that water bag trip to Murray Bridge and back was just a distant memory.
The double was Newman’s second in his relatively brief training career after Connie’s Entity and Like A Slug had been successful at Tara Raceway in June last year.
Prizemoney rise as distance racing return gets closer
The announcement this week that open class prizemoney for staying events would align with middle distance events has coincided with the distinct possibility that a set of boxes for the 732 metres distance will be in Mount Gambier by the end of the month.
Open class prizemoney for Sunday afternoon Category 2 meetings run at Tara Raceway over 732 metres will see winners receive a first prize of $1590.
The Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club has been waiting on the delivery of a set of starting boxes from the Gawler club.
However, Greyhound Racing SA Strategic Projects Officer, Scott Wuchatsch, said that with Gawler currently racing or trialling six days a week it had been a hectic time.
“We have the new boxes ready to install at Gawler.
“Now, I’m just waiting for an opportunity in the schedule to swap them over.
“Angle Park comes online for trialling tonight, so the Gawler schedule will free up a bit although not fully until August 26 when the city track resumes racing.
“My goal at this stage is to have the boxes changed over and the original set transported and installed at the Mount Gambier track by the end of this month.”
The last staying race run at Tara Raceway was on Thursday, July 30, 2020 when the Clint Trengove owned and trained My Boy Bean defeated Close Your Eyes and Victa Jess in a time of 44.05 seconds.
