Mister Twister, whose racetrack fortunes were transformed when he underwent a tonstillectomy earlier this year, lifted his earnings to more than $250,000 when he led throughout in Saturday night's Group 1 Ladbrokes Peter Mosman Classic at Wentworth Park.
The greyhound ($5.50, pictured winning at Wentworth Park last year) jumped brilliantly from box five to defeat gallant Victorian and race favourite Up Hill Jill ($3.40), who was contesting her sixth group final for the year, by three lengths.
“From box five he really needed to nail the start and he certainly did that,” Luke MurRay, head of the Tiger Seven Syndicate which bought Mister Twister as a puppy at auction for $21,000, said after the race.
Chasin' Crackers ($21), also from Victoria, was third all the way, one-and-a-half lengths astern, with the winner covering the 520m in 29.71. That time equalled Bessy Boo's 2014 figures and bettered the 29.83 posted last year by Buck Forty, but was a long way short of Fernando Bale's race record of 29.27 set in 2015.
The win extended Mister Twister’s overall career record to 14 wins from 32 starts and comes less than a month after the greyhound won the lucrative $100,000 Richmond Riches. He has also finished second in the Group 3 Christmas Gift and Group 1 Vic Peters Classic in 2016.
For Up Hill Jill, it was her fifth second placing in a group race this year, having finished runner-up in the Group 1 National Futurity, Group 1 Sapphire Crown, Group 2 Richmond Oaks and the Group 2 Warrnambool Classic.
The David Geall-trained greyhound well began well and was second at the first turn, but was unable to get near Mister Twister and was in that position for the remainder of the race.
In other Wentworth Park action on Saturday night, Ethics">Red Sox Ethics will head to Victoria for a crack at next month's Group 1 Hudson Pacific Maturity Classic after her impressive all-the-way 30.03 victory in a 520m 5th grade on Saturday night.
Ethics">Red Sox Ethics, trained by her owner-breeder David Smith, took her record to five wins from 12 races with an emphatic 11 length victory.
“I drove to The Meadows, the venue of the Maturity heats on July 15, recently and Ethics">Red Sox Ethics trialled a respectable 30.26 for the 525m,” Smith said.
“I also took Yankee's Ethics, who finished seventh in the the Peter Mosman tonight, and he clocked identical time, although his sectional figures were not as quick as those recorded by Ethics">Red Sox Ethics.”
Country trainers Ray Smith from FORBES and Goulburn's Denice Warren each landed the quinella in Saturday night's lucrative finals of the Ladbrokes Up For The Challenge series.
Smith won the stayers final with Big Daddy Bee, who won the Group 1 National Derby early this year, with that greyhound edging out his kennelmate Midnight Treat.
And Warren took out the sprinters final when Quoted Dynasty ran down his kennelmate Something New, who had led until the last stride.
Quoted Dynasty, who was third early and second in the middle stages, got up to win by a head with Lexie Keeping a luckless third, a half head away.
“I thought Ray's other dog Midnight Treat might run us down when she surged into second place on the back straight,” Big Daddy Bee's owner Jason Bateup said.
“It is remarkable that Big Daddy Bee can run out a strong 720m because I raced his dam, Winning Charm, and she struggled to see out 520m.”
Matthew Lanigan, whose kennels at Swan Hill, in outback Victoria, are a five hours round trip from the nearest greyhound track, landed a 520m 5th grade win with Zipping Hooch in a smart 30.02.
Lanigan made the 20 hour round trip to Sydney to win with Zipping Hooch at Wentworth Park on June 7 and his return journey on Saturday night paid off again.
“My father and I both trained greyhounds as a hobby and when I retired I suggested to Matt that the time was ripe for him to give the sport a go too,” Lanigan's father Gerald, a retired banker, said after the race.
“Bendigo, which is two-and-a-half hours from our place at Swan Hill, is the nearest track to us, but we have built a 150 metre straight course on our property to reduce the need for travelling.”
See you next week!
