ANOTHER day of multiple winners last Sunday for Compton greyhound trainer Tracie Price – this time a bag of five – was the best individual performance at Tara Raceway in just over 12 months.
Last year’s leading trainer Nicole Stanley, kicked off her year on January 1, 2017 with five winners – Evening In Paris, Travel Ticket, Stylish Pursuit, Fiorelli Rose and Old Jock.
For Price, it was his most successful day at the track since September 3 last year when he won with Shannah’s Might, Black Fields, Which Moment and Gangster Of Love.
The most number of winners trained by an individual on any one day at Tara Raceway is six – a record established by Price on Sunday, September 20, 2015 after Fear The Rascal, Pam’s Boy, Who’s Doing What, Roma’s Moment, Whatta Moment and Mellow And Black won half the races on the program.
Success came early in the day on Sunday for Price after Kevin Bouchier’s Dimora Flash, a daughter of Cosmic Rumble and the 2014 Winter Classic winner Stylish Moment, took the lead going out of the first turn and was never headed when opening her winning account in the 512-metre Greg Martlew Autos Stake.
He then won the final four races with Shine On Shannah, Swift Moment, Swift Limes and Hopalong, the former, by Fabregas x Shannah’s Star, a younger half-sister to Price’s two former prolific-winning dogs in Shannah’s Might and Fear The Rascal.
Owned locally by Don Nunn, Shine On Shannah led all the way from box seven in the 512-metre Klaassens Contractors Stake, eventually holding out an improved Garnet to win by a head in 30.28 seconds – a time that should see her more than competitive in this Sunday’s Peter Rocket Summer Classic heats.
Box one specialist Swift Limes, a member of the successful Swift Fancy x Which Class litter, quickly shook off Ming Men Shen before going on to a comfortable six length win over that greyhound for the Bouchier Syndicate in the 400-metre Gambier Vets Mixed Stake.
And for the second consecutive meeting, the Scott Brandon owned Hopalong broke the 23-second barrier for the 400 metre journey when clocking 22.93 seconds (22.96 seconds at his previous start) and once again defeating Oh No Beta in his all the way win.
But the story of the day as far as Karen and Tracie Price were concerned was the win of Swift Limes’ litter brother Swift Moment in the 400-metre Produce Store Stake.
This is the dog that ran a best of day 29.82 seconds over 512 metres at Tara Raceway in May last year, impressing to the extent he was sent to WA to be trained by Krystal Shinners.
However, at his first start the following month at Mandurah the black dog suffered severe tendon damage which saw him flown back to Victoria for a lengthy surgical procedure.
It would be seven months before Swift Moment raced again, finally back on the track on January 26 at Tara Raceway over 400 metres to finish third in a pretty handy grade five field.
Team Price was happy with the run, but even happier last Sunday when he led all the way to beat Arolok Jax by six lengths in 23.16 seconds.
“What we like about him is that he’s such a hard chaser, especially now that he’s starting to get his confidence back,” Karen Price said.
“Now we’re hoping he’ll be ready for the Mount Gambier Cup.”
