David Lewis
LAST Sunday’s Family Fun in the Sun day attracted one of the best crowds seen at Tara Raceway in a long time.
Among the sea of new faces was an “old” face – Margaret Cryer, formerly of Apsley.
Now residing in Adelaide, she was spending a couple of days in Mount Gambier and decided to take in the Sunday greyhound fixture.
As it turned out, this was also the day of the Carlin & Gazzard MG Summer Classic final, an age-restricted 512-metre event that this year carried record prize money of $10,000.
First run in 2015, the Summer Classic is a race that would have brought back fond memories for Cryer, who was the owner of Cryer’s Ricky, trained by her late husband Tom.
Cryer’s Ricky, a son of Spring Gun and Cryer’s Midget, contested the inaugural classic, but after finishing fourth behind Mendes in a heat was a reserve in the final.
As luck would have it though, he gained a start due to a scratching and duly defeated Future Past by four lengths in a time of 29.96 seconds.
So who better to present the 2023 Summer Classic trophy to the winner than Margaret Cryer?
Still chasing his first Summer Classic win, Compton trainer Tracie Price – who will receive the 2022 Ian Badger Leading Trainer award on Sunday – had three runners in the final.
Blue Sky Boy was an odds-on favourite, despite being beaten into second place in a heat the previous week by Elegant Bix, while Honey Rocks and Mister Banjo were both about the $8 mark.
But it was Price’s box-one runner Honey Rocks, a February 2021 fawn daughter of Fernando Bale and Rhonda Rocks, who went straight to the front.
Settling into second and third spots down the back was the Adelaide pair Elegant Beamer and Elegant Bix who had won the previous week’s heats for owner-trainer Richard Stasiak.
Price said he had earmarked Honey Rocks for the Summer Classic.
In what had been a keen tussle in the run home, she was able to defeat Elegant Beamer by a neck in 29.81 seconds.
“Look, I rate her very highly,” Price said.
“I was pretty confident that she would find the front at some stage of the race and then hopefully hang on.
“Thankfully, that’s how it played out.”
Honey Rocks is owned by her breeder, Ron Murch of the Adelaide suburb Pennington.
His is an involvement that goes back some 45 years.
It is also an involvement that really took off following the purchase of a pup in 2013.
“By Kinloch Brae out of Punk Rock Lass, I purchased her from Victoria breeder Mario Brigante,” Murch said.
“Later, she broke in well but was always a nervous type of dog.
“Later, when trained at Alberton by Bill Wudarczyk and racing as Rhonda Rocks, she won first up at Angle Park over 515 metres in a smart time of 29.89 seconds.
“Then, at her second start, she was injured and off the scene for quite some time.”
However, her subsequent return to the track was short-lived after a 10-length trial win ended with a catching pen mishap.
Five litters were to follow – by My Bro Fabio, Barcia Bale and three by Fernando Bale, the first including multiple Group 1 winner Sennachie, who collected more than $700,000 in prize money.
“Living in the suburbs, I’ve had to farm out Rhonda Rocks for her litters,” Murch said.
“And people such as Bill, Kirin Corby, Tanya Rawlings and Amy Debattista have been a great help.”
Honey Rocks, one of the third Fernando Bale litter which comprised only three bitches, commenced her racing career in Queensland where she won over 520 metres at Albion Park.
“The time had been steady and it wasn’t long before the trainer suggested she would better placed in Adelaide,” Murch said.
“Previously, I had become acquainted with Tracie Price through an association with Tyson Panagiotou who had purchased Chuck Rocks from me.
“Tracie had been happy enough to have a go with Honey Rocks.
“I certainly can’t speak highly enough of him as a trainer and a person.
“Needless to say, I was really happy with her win in the Summer Classic at Mount Gambier.
“I’ve never been to Tara Raceway and had been thinking of going down for the race.
“I’m now disappointed that I didn’t make the effort.”
While it is nice to win, Stasiak still came out of the Summer Classic series pretty well after litter brothers Elegant Beamer and Elegant Bix both won heats and then filled the minor placings in the final.
