Lewiston four-dog trainer Harry Trengove, 23, was back among the winners at Tara Raceway last Thursday when Raven Macaw upstaged odds-on favourite Saint Kimetto in the Swallow Drive Meats Stake over 600 metres.
Having his first start at the track, Raven Macaw is a son of Barcia Bale and the US-bred 10-race winner My Black Raven, a daughter of SH Avatar x Moto Taryn.
And the all the way win by 2½ lengths in 35.53 seconds was Trengove’s first at the Mount Gambier track since February when he had been successful with Rockstar Fender and later in the month with Winkler.
Raven Macaw, now with his fourth trainer, had gone into last week’s 0-4 wins race with only one win to his name – a maiden over 450 metres in July at Ballarat prior to finding his way over to South Australia.
“I picked him up as a giveaway in September,” Trengove said.
“Given that he had spent most of November racing at Broken Hill over 525 metres – by and large not going too badly – he looked to me like he could perhaps handle a bit more ground.
“I was pretty happy with the 600 metre effort.
Considering it was his first run over the middle-distance I thought he ran it out quite well and the time was not too bad.”
In the following race, the Ary Sports Bar & Bistro Maiden Stake (400 m), Burn The Bend opened her winning account at start number four for Barry Paton’s five-member syndicate and Koroit trainer Peter Keane.
Despite being slowly away from box five, the black bitch quickly worked to the front after finding the rails and then ran away to a 5¾ length win over Big Earner in 23.85 seconds.
By Shima Shine, Burn The Bend is out of Lulumon, a daughter of Kinloch Brae and Mepunga Moss.
She won seven races in a 66-start career – her last win coming in December 2019 at Warrnambool where she defeated that year’s Mount Gambier Cup winner Galactic Athena.
Bred at Warrnambool by Rob and Linda Gore, Burn The Bend was reared at Koroit by Gerald McKenna and Lindsay Brookes prior to Keane taking over the training back in June.
“As she showed today, she’s mad for the rails,” he said.
“I was certainly happy with the run and reckon she’s got a few more races in her – perhaps even over 512 metres.”
Keane, who owns a yet to race member of the litter, also trains litter sister Can Get Thirsty, third to Burn The Bend last week for Simon O’Keefe and 30-odd bricklayers.
Meanwhile, Compton Brockie, trained at Compton by Tracie Price, appeared to have a bit to find in the Williams Crane Hire Fast Forward final for TG1-4W greyhounds over 400 metres – especially after the previous week’s heats.
On that occasion it had been a case of Yadillah Lad going straight to the front from box eight and defeating Compton Brockie by 11¾ lengths in 23.06 seconds for Portland trainer Robert Halliday.
Well, find it he did.
Come the $1065-to-the-winner final and Compton Brockie dashed straight to the front from box five and was never headed in a time of 23.38 seconds.
Running home well for a 1½ length second was former kennelmate Just Paddy, now trained at Glencoe by Dean Fennell.
In third place, a further three lengths back, was Yadillah Lad.
Raw Luxury, a daughter of Fernando Bale and Sober, won 15 races in WA and at Mount Gambier prior to being mated with Zambora Brockie which resulted in just the one dog pup which she totally rejected.
Recapping the story, Price’s wife Karen said Compton Brockie started off inside the house and slept in an Esky with a hot water bottle.
Later, he was able to be placed to be reared with a litter of their four Tandiki pups which, as it turned out, included a couple of other recent winners in Compton Kelly and Mr. Tandiki.
