Fortunes Of Time, the talented litter sister of Wentworth Park star However Humble, is set to finally make her race debut at Gosford tomorrow night.
While However Humble established himself as one of last year's fastest beginners, scoring four wins and six placings from 16 Wentworth Park races, his sister and kennelmate Fortunes Of Time has remained unraced after winning four of five performance trials.
She won her latest performance trial at Richmond on Friday, scampering over the 400m in a slick 22.68.
"Fortunes Of Time has had a sequence of niggling injuries,'' owner Kerry Drynan said. "Whenever mum (Doreen) and I had her ready to race something would go amiss again.
"It has been extremely frustrating because Fortunes Of Time is as good as However Humble and is actually stronger than him at the finish of 520 metres.
"Unfortunately Fortunes Of Time is only in a 400m maiden tomorrow night because she has not been over 515m since winning a trial over that distance at Gosford on December 13.''
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When John Beattie bought a five months old puppy he later named Takeover Teddy for just $1500 he could not have envisaged what a great investment he had made.
Norm Curby, now a NSWGBOTA director, sold Takeover Teddy to Beattie and while she won only five races she has been a four-legged goldmine at the stud.
Mr Clydesdale, who won 17 races and $77,000 in stakes and Old Spice, winner of a dozen races and $42,000, are the progeny stars but Takeover Teddy has also produced smart sprinters like Miss Huxtable, Charlie Nuttier and Wild Judy, who broke 25 seconds over 450m at Maitland.
Latest of Takeover Teddy's offspring to hit the racetrack in blazing fashion is Wild Walter, owned by Beattie and trained by Terry Priest.
Wild Walter won a fifth grade 400m event at Maitland last Thursday in 22.31sec, fastest Time of the day, prompting his trainer to begin making long-range plans to bring the dog to Wentworth Park.
"Wild Walter's brother Wild Jimmy is very smart but he hasn't handled Wenty in three starts there and in hindsight I might have rushed him there prematurely,'' Priest said.
"I don't intend to make that mistake with Wild Walter and when he makes his race debut in Sydney he will have had at least two or three trials on the track to ensure he is confident about the place.
"Wild Walter has only just come back into work because I gave him a couple of weeks off during the hot weather. While he only won over 400m at Maitland on Thursday his run-home Times indicate he will 'get' the 520 metres at Wenty.''
Not surprisingly the Takeover Teddy females are now breeding on successfully, with his daughter Ritza Jiggles, winner of nine races, being the dam of Jet Boy Blue.
Jet Boy Blue, just two years old, has won three of his nine races.
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Sweet Lolly is on her way to becoming the "grand old lady'' of greyhound racing following her blistering 29.82 win over 520m at Dapto on Thursday night.
Having her 120th start for hobby owner-trainer Peter Massa, Sweet Lolly rocketed out of box eight and led throughout, scoring her 13th win.
"That performance was unbelievable," Massa said. "Sweet Lolly will be five years old in April, yet her Time on Thursday was easily the quickest she has recorded at Dapto.
"Sweet Lolly clocked 30.10 in a trial there as a youngster but has never looked like breaking the 30 second barrier.
"Obviously I want to breed from her, because she is a Wentworth Park winner, but Sweet Lolly has not come in season at any stage.
"I can't pinpoint why she went so well on Thursday but I tried a couple of different things with her recently and she started to trial nicely again.''
Massa, who trains from an inner Sydney suburb, had only Sweet Lolly in his kennels until purchasing Ashby Storm a month ago.
"Ashby Storm has won three races and has ability but while he is only just over two years old. I am not sure if he will run a strong 520 metres,'' Massa said.
