Dawn Mini picked up where she left off after winning the Group 3 Ladies Bracelet with another dazzling front-running exhibition at Wentworth Park on Saturday night.
The Keith Pedrana owned, trained and bred marvel, began brilliantly to win the Ladies Bracelet on May 6 and again came out under the lids to win in 29.96 on Saturday.
Dawn Mini was stepping out for start number 116, but raced like an enthusiastic newcomer to score her first win in 15 starts from box seven.
"I had a trainer come up up to me saying my dog has only had 20 starts and it is just over three, the same age as Dawn Mini," Pedrana said.
"But then the trainer admitted his greyhound has also had 70 trials, that's the difference. Dawn Mini doesn't go to trial tracks, she races, and she loves it.
"After the Bracelet I sent her to Melbourne for a race at Sandown in Melbourne but she didn't fly the lids like she does at Wentworth Park because the boxes are different down there. And she didn't like being away from home, I could tell by how happy she was when she came home.
"She never stopped wagging her tail so I knew she was going to win again tonight."
Grafton trainer Evelyn Harris brought Cosmic Bonus to Sydney on Saturday night for a Wentworth Park "refresher course" before next week's Group 1 Peter Mosman Classic and her greyhound came through with flying colours.
Cosmic Bonus led throughout, upsetting the odds-on favourite Patch Adam to win a 520m 3/4th grade by just under a length in 29.83.
"I have been racing him at Albion Park but the starting boxes and the track there is a lot different to Wenty," Harris said.
"With next Saturday's Peter Mosman heats in mind I felt Cosmic Bonus needed to have a fresh look at Wentworth Park because he had not raced there for nearly two months."
Cosmic Bonus' time was only 0.01 outside Saturday's fastest, posted by She's Grand.
Surely the most improved greyhound in training, She's Grand notched her sixth win in 16 Wentworth Park appearances with the rising three-year-old getting better with age.
After she won in 30.04 at Wentworth Park on May 17 her trainer Rodney O'Brien predicted his greyhound would break 30 seconds at the track soon. How right he was.
Bold Opal is headed back to her owner in Queensland despite landing her third Wentworth Park race on Saturday night.
Bold Opal led throughout to win a 520m 5th grade in a slick 30.06 from the Jason MACKAY-trained Data Star, taking her record to nine wins from 24 races.
"Her owner sent her down to me to contest the Ladies Bracelet and the Richmond Riches," Bold Opal's trainer Beverley Sloan said.
"Now he wants her home and I've got no problem with that, if she was mine I would want her back too!"
Sloan did a great job with Bold Opal who was a finalist in Dawn Mini's Ladies Bracelet before defeating Opal Nera, winner of last Friday's Consolation Final, in a heat of the Richmond Riches on May 12.
Riley Tokaam, fresh from a pair of 600m wins at Unibet Gardens, opened his Wentworth Park 520m account with a powerful 5th grade win on Saturday night.
But trainer Jason MACKAY doubts the greyhound will become a stayer.
"Riley Tokaam got to the line strongly in his 600m wins at The Gardens but that is not a hard run," MACKAY said.
"A Richmond 618m test or two will give me a better idea as to whether he can run 720m but if I was pressed to have a guess I would say I doubt he will become a true stayer."
See you next week!
