By David Lewis
LOCALLY-bred and owned greyhound Unique Destiny joined in the 150 year Victorian Waterloo Cup celebrations at Lang Lang last weekend.
By Blue Moon Rising out of Galactic Destiny, Unique Destiny is owned by Steve and Lee Bartholomew of Worrolong in partnership with their daughter Elysia of Mount Gambier.
He was transferred soon after breaking-in to Rowsley trainer Matt Lanigan who has been successful with the black dog on the track at Bendigo, Ballarat and Healesville.
Unique Destiny also won a maiden coursing stake at Longwood and reached the last four of the Puppy Championship and the last three of the Coursing Derby prior to taking on Victoria’s oldest greyhound event.
A defeat in the first round of the Waterloo Cup saw him move into the Waterloo Plate, a consolation for beaten runners in the early rounds of the cup.
Two winning runs later that day in the Plate ensured he would be back a week later for the business end of proceedings.
The following week Unique Destiny kicked off with a bye in his first course.
This ensured he would advance to the next round although he still had to complete the course on his own.
Two more winning courses secured the Waterloo Plate for the Bartholomew family and Group 1 winning trainer Lanigan.
Representing the Bartholomew family at Lang Lang was Tim Manterfield – Elysia’s partner.
Also chief track curator and lure driver at Mount Gambier’s Tara Raceway, he was in Melbourne for the Track Curators’ Forum.
The forum coincided with the National Sprint and Distance Titles which were run at The Meadows last Saturday night.
The Meadows track manager, Cory Hiscock, said it was his great hope that formation of a peak body to represent track curators would be the 2023 Nationals’ greatest outcome.
“I’m intending to work with relevant people in the coming weeks to create a platform to continue the networking and information sharing that began over the weekend,” he said.
Meanwhile, Unique Destiny switched from coursing back to the track last Friday afternoon when coming from well back to finish third over 425 metres at Bendigo.
