Up Hill Jill, making her 15th visit to Wentworth Park, finally broke through for her first Group 1 win in Sydney when she ran down her arch rival Striker Light in Saturday night's $250,000 to the winner Ladbrokes Golden Easter Egg final.
The mighty Victorian bitches staged a thrilling battle from start to finish, with Striker Light setting a scorching pace from box one with Up Hill Jill, who nailed the start from her box six draw, in Hot pursuit.
Striker Light, winner of the 2017 Golden Easter Egg in which Up Hill Jill was relegated to sixth position, still led for home and seemed set to create history by becoming the first greyhound to win NSW's biggest race for a second time.
But Up Hill Jill finished determinedly along the rails to snatch victory by a neck with another Victorian, Fernando Express, making up ground finish a distant third.
Favourite Miss Splendamiro jumped well from box two but was outpaced and after being checked at the first turn was never a threat and finished fifth.
Up Hill Jill covered the 520m in a slick 29.77, .22 faster than Striker Light's 2017 figures but well outside the great Fernando Bale's race record of 29.48 set in 2015.
After the race Up Hill Jill's trainer David Geall said: "The three races on the national calendar we all want to win are Sandown's Melbourne Cup, the Australian Cup at The Meadows, and Wenty's Golden Easter Egg.
"It has been a dream of my wife Rose, who owns Up Hill Jill, and myself, to win this race, and to do it with a greyhound we have bred ourselves is just wonderful.''
Up Hill Jill won last year's Group 1 Topgun at The Meadows and the group 2 Sandown Laurels but Saturday's win ended a frustrating run of defeats in group 1 finals in Sydney.
Despite her win there are no immediate plans to retire Up Hill Jill.
"She won't let us retire her, she just loves to race,'' owner Rose Geall said.
"Up Hill Jill is a real professional and she will tell us when she wants to finish up, by coming in season.''
Saturday night's other Group 1 event at Wentworth Park, saw bush greyhound Simon Keeping stage a last-to-first performance to win the $75,000 to the winner Association Cup.
Raced by his breeder Shayne Stiff from Dubbo and trained by Marty Hallinan at Clergate, near ORANGE, Simon Keeping whizzed past Hot favourite Rippin' Sam entering the back and raced away to win by just on six lengths.
Simon Keeping covered the 720m in a fast 42.10, which compared well with the race record of 41.78 set by Victoria's Sweet It Is in 2014.
Stiff disclosed after the race that he had been about to "sack'' Simon Keeping from his team after the dog performed ingloriously at Grafton last year.
"I had a huge bet on Simon Keeping and he went terrible in an ordinary race so I phoned Marty Hallinan, a close friend, and told him I wanted to sell the dog,'' Stiff said.
"Marty persuaded me to let him have a crack at training Simon Keeping and he put him in a paddock with a litter of little puppies for six weeks.
"Simon Keeping had the time of his life and when Marty put him back into work he was a different dog, a lot happier in himself and anxious to race.''
In other action at Wentworth Park on Saturday night the Dennis Barnes-trained Nangar Jill led throughout to defeat her kennelmate Nangar Ace in the Group 3 Ladbrokes Magic Maiden, while Big Black, trained by Donna Campbell, stormed home to take out the Group 3 The Ambrosoli, the consolation final of the Easter Egg.
Hot favourite Winsome Money began brilliantly to lead throughout for owner-trainer John Finn in the Group 3 New Sensation and Real Simple, trained at Yass by Neil Staines, showed dazzling early pace for an all-the-way win in the $15,000 to the winner Ultra Sense final.
See you next week!
