REGULAR 100-kilometre trips from Coleraine over to Mount Gambier to exercise greyhound pups at the Tara Raceway slipping track finally paid off for Steve and Sindy Colpoys when Villa Maldini was successful at last Sunday’s end of year race meeting.
Lining up for start number three, the 21-month-old black dog led all the way from box two in the 400-metre Metal Worx Maiden Stake, eventually defeating Hard Call by two lengths in the handy time of 23.69 seconds.
This was the first win at Tara Raceway for the Colpoys who have been based at Coleraine for the past 15 months.
Also on track to enjoy his first win with his first dog was Villa Maldini’s owner, Melbourne-based Mick Kemp – Sindy Colpoys’ son.
By Group 1 winning Australian sire Dyna Villa, Villa Maldini is out of four-race Victorian winner Mizzy Maldini, a daughter of Group 1 winning Irish sire Droopys Maldini and Latin Sal who traces back to the prolific producer Wee Sal.
This is Mizzy Maldini’s second litter, the first being by Fear Zafonic and producing five individual winners, including Sloan Ranger who long-time participant Steve Colpoys has no hesitation in naming as the best dog he has been associated with.
“We had a lot of fun with him, winning races at Shepparton, Bendigo, Sale, Geelong, Ballarat, Warragul and Warrnambool,” he recalled.
The second time round, the Colpoys were kept busy after the Dyna Villa mating produced a litter of 11 with four ultimately being kept by them.
“When we first moved to Coleraine we did not have a lot of room so we purchased a Tara Raceway slipping track key and made frequent trips to Mount Gambier in order the pups could get plenty of galloping as they were growing up,” Sindy Colpoys said.
Three other members of the litter, now racing as Ebonique, Yelredda Saint and Kimani (the Colpoys have retained an interest in this one), are being trained by Jeanette Imlach of Pearcedale and went around in the first race at Sandown Park on Monday afternoon with Yelredda Saint the pick of the trio when finishing fourth after showing early pace.
Roy wraps up good year
MO Town Roy’s win last Sunday in one of the better 600-metre races run at Tara Raceway in 2017 wrapped up a pretty good year for the son of Razldazl Jayfkay x New Year’s Punch, his connections, the Micallef brothers, and trainer Cap Abbott of Edenhope.
Surely the omen bet of the day in light of his breeding, Mo Town Roy went straight to the front from box two, eventually running out a three length winner over Homer in 35.44 seconds.
In Abbott’s kennels for the past 18 months, the 35 kilogram brindle dog ended 2017 with three Tara Raceway 600-metre wins, which complemented five 600 metre wins and one over 731 metres at Angle Park as well as a 643 metre win at Gawler.
The septuagenarian (someone between 70 and 80 years of age) trainer had his best year ever at Tara Raceway in 2017 with 31 wins, 37 seconds and 35 thirds which saw him finish in fifth spot on the Leading Trainers’ list.
Abbott, who won the 1974 Melbourne Cup with a $30 pup called Kwik Metal, will hit the highway again today when he heads to Adelaide with Mo Town Roy, Shaniqua, Emily As and Blonde Barbados for the Angle Park meeting.
Also making the trip from Portland to Angle Park tonight – for the first time – will be Tara Raceway’s 2017 leading trainer Nicole Stanley with Verev, Fiorelli Rose, Big Lebowski, Rising Girl (reserve) and Shiney Bling who will clash with Mo Town Roy in a pretty handy Mixed 3/4/5 over 600 metres.
Busy period for racing
HEATS of the 512-metre Val and Col Sims Memorial Maiden heats at Tara Raceway on Sunday will kick off a big three months of feature racing at the Mount Gambier track.
In February, it will be interesting to see whether the 512-metre Peter Rocket Summer Classic, for greyhounds whelped on or after January 1, 2016, can unearth another Mount Gambier Cup contender as has been the case in the past three years.
The 2015, Classic winner Cryer’s Ricky had no luck in the cup final the following month while 2016 winner Menzel Boys was a luckless third in the final of that year. Last year, Hutch reached the final of the Mount Gambier Cup after scoring a brilliant win in the Summer Classic.
This year’s Listed $22,000 Mount Gambier Cup final will be run on Sunday, March 18 with heats the week prior.
Heats of supporting events will be conducted on Friday, March 9 while the cup contenders will be auctioned at the Calcutta on Saturday night, March 10 at the clubrooms.
Meanwhile, trainers are advised that due to a forecast of 39 degrees in Mount Gambier on Saturday there will be no trials conducted at Tara Raceway on that morning.
