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Ray Steele will seek permission to trial his brilliant speedster Lady Ronray (pictured) at Sandown Park this Thursday night after she took her record to 13 wins from 16 races in Saturday night’s Odds Park Corp Final (520m) at Wentworth Park.
Trainer Steele is targeting next month’s Group 2 Sandown Laurels Classic with Lady Ronray, a 515m $50,000 to the winner race to be held on December 7, 14 and 21.
“I’d prefer to give her a look at Sandown during Thursday’s race meeting because on trial days the track conditions don’t always give you a clear guide as to how your greyhound has performed,’’ Steele said.
“Hopefully Sandown officials will allow me to trial her and if they do I will drive to Melbourne on Wednesday to give her time to acclimatise.’’
Saturday night’s win was arguably Lady Ronray’s “toughest’’ performance as she had to win a duel for the early lead with front-running Senorita Pearl and then hold off a late bid by Zipping Tarn in score in a slick 29.71.
Pumped Up Zarr confirmed his ranking as NSW’s top stayer with his seventh win in 13 Wentworth Park 720m starts in Saturday night’s Petsnacks Stakes.
The stayer had not raced since November 1 but trainer Neil Staines had no concerns about the dog not being ready to run out a strong 720m.
“I didn’t plan it that way because I nominated the dog for the Bold Trease Cup heats at Sandown on November 13 but had to scratch him when my wife took ill,’’ Staines said on Saturday night.
“But missing that run didn’t matter because Pumped Up Zarr races well fresh and I kept him fit by swimming him in my dam at home at Yass and with a couple of trials over 530m at Canberra and 457m at Goulburn.’’
Pumped Up Zarr will now tackle the group three Schweppes Summer Cup heats at Wentworth Park this Saturday night.
Owner-trainer Jeff Eaton believes the compression rugs now widely used on greyhounds when travelling to race meetings have been a major factor in the consistent form of La Grand Logie who led throughout in Saturday night’s Ladbrokes Sprint Series Final (520m).
La Grand Logie enhanced his tally to seven wins from 12 starts when he clocked a personal best 29.88sec with a neck defeat of the consistent Raincheck.
“Before I began using the compression rug on him, La Grand Logie would bark all the way from my home at Jilliby to Wentworth Park,’’ Eaton said.
“He would really work himself into a state by the time we got to the track but the rug has calmed him down completely so he saves his energy for the race.’’
Apart from boom pup Winsome Prince, Friday night's most impressive winners were bush greyhounds Cosmic Prince and Fashion Princess.
Wagga-trained Cosmic Prince overcame a check at the first turn and a collision on the back straight to win by three lengths while Fashion Princess showed great tenacity to win her race by a head.
She contested the entire race as “ham in the sandwich’’ while duelling for the lead with Pride Of Mykonos on the rail and Hilda’s Boy on her outside because finishing best to snatch a last stride victory.
See you next week!
