Majella Ferguson described it as “the icing on the cake” when the classy but injury-plagued
Irreplaceable won her first race at Wentworth Park last Saturday night.
2008 NSW Trainer of the Year Majella and her husband Craig have endured a nightmare run with Irreplaceable, with injuries restricting the striking black and white daughter of
Brett Lee and the Fergusons’ brood bitch
Stylish Scene to only eight starts since winning the South Australian Oaks back in October 2008.
While prior to last Saturday night’s Wentworth Park meeting, Irreplaceable boasted the imposing record of 15 wins from her 25 starts, she hadn’t been successful in four visits to Glebe.
But that changed when she was a runaway winner of the Hotham Body Repairs Stake, defeating
Kerosene by five and three quarter lengths in 30.77 on a rain-affected surface.
“The time wasn’t there but I thought the win was good,” Majella said.
“It absolutely poured just as they were going to the boxes for her race, which didn’t help either.
“She’s done it all now. She’s won city races in three states after winning the Oaks at Angle Park and a semi of the Laurels at Sandown and winning a race at Wenty is the icing on the cake.
“A lot of people have asked us why we would keep running her when she’s got nothing to prove and has had so many injuries but she really just wants to race.
“We don’t have any grand plans for her but I think we’ll keep her going for a while. Although if anything happens to her that’ll definitely be it and Craig was able to get a
Token Prince straw that we’re going to use with her, so that’s exciting.”
The Fergusons only decided to start training their own greyhounds when champion mentor Don McMillan retired in 2007, but enjoyed immediate success with the very first litter they bred including Irreplaceable and last year’s Tweed Heads Galaxy hero
Dazzle You.
Dazzle You has also been sidelined by injury, but he resumed from an enforced six-month layoff when winning first-up at Maitland and he’ll now contest Friday night’s heats of the Cannonball at Richmond.
“Dazzle You did his hip support, like Irreplaceable, but beat
Reg Kay’s
Seize The Moment at Maitland at his first start in six and a half months and he’ll go in the Cannonball now,” Majella said.
“Stylish Scene’s first litter was fantastic – two Group winners, five won in the city and ten of the eleven won races.
“She’s had another two litters and they’ve both been huge as well. She had ten pups to Hallucinate and five weeks ago had 11 to Bombastic Shiraz.”