Thompson Keeping An Eye On Midnight Starlet

By Jeff Collerson

Midnight Starlet, the unlucky runner of the Ladbrokes Magic Maiden series, will attempt to score her first win at Bathurst on Monday.

The David Pringle-trained youngster's mission is the Miller Memorial, a 516m event scheduled during the Dubbo Cup carnival.

Heats of the Miller Memorial, for greyhounds with zero to two wins, will be held on April 20 with the final a week later.

Midnight Starlet was a certainty beaten when second, from box five, in Ritza Millie's Magic Maiden semi-final and again had no luck when a fast finishing fourth in Nangar Jill's Wentworth Park final last Saturday.

Seona Thompson, who turned the former David Pringle-trained dog Burn One Down into Australia's top stayer, is keen to acquire Midnight Starlet.

Burn One Down went to Thompson as a maiden but won 34 of 55 starts in Victoria and earned $488,000 prizemoney.

"Seona has already phoned to say there was room in her kennels for Midnight Starlet,'' David Pringle quipped.

"But nothing is set in concrete yet and she will be with me at Clergate for a while yet.

"She is an exciting prospect but she might not be any good beyond 600 metres, who knows?

"I have no doubt that if I trialled Midnight Starlet solo over 520m at Wentworth Park she would break 30 seconds, but she lacks the early brilliance to be a really good sprinter and is desperate for an inside box.''

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Tiny Laurie's Sticka, built more like a whippet than a greyhound, scored her first Wentworth Park win last Wednesday, a far cry from what her owner once expected to be her future.

Trained at Forestville on the NSW northern beaches by Simon Ma, the 23kg Laurie's Sticka led throughout to win a 520m fifth grade in the respectable time of 30.36.

She had previously racked up two placings from six Wentworth Park races, yet owner Laurie Refalo had once organised Laurie's Sticka to be adopted as pet.

"Before Laurie's Sticka raced Laurie asked me to give her a try on the racetrack but warned me she was so slow he had already made arrangements for her to become a pet,'' trainer Ma said.

"In her first trial, over 400m at Gosford, she clocked 23.89 which is indeed, very, very slow.

"But every time I trialled Laurie's Sticka she improved a little bit and that encouraged me to keep going.

"I always thought she would eventually run 520 metres because although she got tired at the finish of her first few runs over that distance, she recovered quickly.

"Greyhounds which are never going to see out 520 metres take a long while to pick up again but Laurie's Sticka was just the opposite, so I knew she would gradually acquire stamina.''

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Sydney owned Dusty Gambler is poised to become NEW ZEALAND's best stayer after trouncing last year's Group 1 Wentworth Park Association Cup winner Trip To Eden in last week's 747m Group 2 McDonald Cup at Cambridge.

Dusty Gambler had broken the Cambridge 650m record at his NZ debut for trainer Karen Walsh, before giving Trip To Eden a big start and a beating in the McDonald Cup.

Karen Walsh has long been a successful trainer of stayers and brought Know Peace across the Tasman in 2012 to win the Group 3 Chairmans Cup over 720m at Wentworth Park.

"Karen has trained a lot of good stayers but when she phoned me after Dusty Gambler's latest win she could hardly contain her excitement,'' the dog's Sydney owner and breeder, Diane Stollery, said.