A strong heat win combined with an ideal box draw has trainer Toni Northfield confident her evergreen greyhound Porky Teller can take out Friday’s Group 3 Charcoal Inn Casino Cup (484m).
Porky Teller jumps from box one for Northfield in the $25,000-to-the-winner decider, one of the biggest races of the year in the NSW Northern Rivers.
The greyhound reached the final with a smart 27.93 run over the 484m in last week’s heats in what was her 110th career start.
Porky Teller has recently hit a rich vein of form having won three of her past four starts, which were all in open grade company, and Northfield thinks she is a good chance in Friday’s cup.
“She seems to go better over this distance at Casino (than anywhere else) and she’s in good form,” Northfield said.
“These finals are so tough but I’m optimistic.”
The Northfields are one of the most well-known greyhound racing families in NSW and have enjoyed plenty of success over the years.
Toni, who owns and trains greyhounds alongside husband Charlie, won last year’s Group 2 Lismore Workers Club Cup with Kingsbrae Nelly.
“We’ve won a few country cups, but we’ve never managed to win our hometown cup,” Northfield said. “It would mean so much to win this.
“We’ll have plenty of our family down there watching and I think there’ll be some wonderful celebrations if she wins.
“I shed a few tears of joy when we won the Lismore Cup. Hopefully we’ll have some more this time.”
Standing in Porky Teller’s way is fastest heat qualifier Nangar Thunder (box two) who scored a smart 27.69 run in last week's heats.
The DAVE Irwin-trained greyhound has placed in each of his three previous starts from box two and has triumphed on two of his three previous visits to Casino.
With her usual searing early pace local greyhound Mahailia, trained by Frank Hancock, is also a strong contender from box four.
She ran 28.01 from box one last week and has won three times and placed once in six previous starts wearing the blue rug.
Aristotle (box eight) has been running well recently and looks the best roughie chance.
Echo Gal (box three), Tobias Rumble (box five), Miss Spritely (box six) and Black Lee Bonus (box seven) complete the field.
The Casino Cup is the biggest race of the year at the Casino club, with the track staging a special twilight meeting to ensure as many racegoers can get trackside to see the racing action.
The Casino Cup is race eight of 11 at Casino on Friday and jumps at 6.14pm.
For Casino Friday fields, form and expert picks, click here.
