Charmaine Roberts has confirmed her Group 2 Sires On Ice Black Top winner Caitlyn Keeping, has pulled up well following Friday night’s all the way victory, and will definitely take her place in the field for Monday’s heats of the GRNSW + Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase.
The series, which will culminate in the world richest greyhound race at Wentworth Park on October 20, gets underway at Bathurst on Monday afternoon, with four Regional Qualifying heats. First and second from each will advance to the Regional final to be run at Bathurst on September 10, with first and second there headed to Wentworth Park for the semi-finals on October 12.
After being run down in the heats, Caitlyn Keeping was drawn as first reserve for the $40,000 to the winner Black Top, but the scratching of Black Forge midweek, gave the bitch a start in her favourable box eight.
She took the run, jumped to the front, and this time woudn’t be run down, hanging on to beat her conqueror of the week before, Zipping Tayla.
“It’s amazing … sometimes, someone else’s misfortune is someone else’s good fortune, and that’s how it was for us,” Roberts said of her and her partner, Dubbo president Shayne Stiff, and of course Caitlyn Keeping.
“The week before she had never been to the track, and we were run down by a better dog on of the night. I thought she would be better for the run, but up the back, I thought here is de ja vu, we’re going to get run down by Zipping Tayla again.
“And when they went past us (at the starting boxes) I honestly thought she was going to get run down.”
It didn’t prove to be the case, and Caitlyn Keeping held off the favourite by half a length.
While she has never backed Caitlyn Keeping up so soon before, Roberts had no hesitation in declaring her a starter for Bathurst.
“Oh yeah, she’ll be running. She has pulled up well. It was about a 12 hour round trip - about six over and six back,” Roberts said of the trek from Dubbo to Newcastle. “It’s not a five minute drive. And you have to take into consideration, there are plenty of road works at the moment and they have those big mining trucks and if you get stuck behind one of them you can’t get around them, so you have to give yourself enough time. We do stop and sit in the car for an hour or so, just to stop the movement of the car and give the dogs a rest.
“I had a dog in race 11 on Friday night, so it was 4.30am when I drove back in the gate at home.
“I left at about 11am on Friday, and when we drove over, there was a massive, massive dust storm, and it rained the whole way, and on the way back, it’s dark and you’re dodging all the roos and wombats all the way … yeah it was a huge day.
“But it’s alright when you come home winning. And it was such a great night. I reckon the crowd was bigger than at the Golden Easter Egg. It was massive and they did such a good job.”
Roberts revealed that a decision to enter the Black Top was spur of the moment and really only because remedial work being done at Wentworth Park, had closed the track temporarily.
“She raced at Bathurst on the Monday and won, and when I was driving home I was talking to Shayne about her. If Wentworth Park were trialling she wouldn’t have gone to the Black Top because we had all intentions to take her to Wentworth Park and see if she could win a race there. We never would have thought of The Gardens.
“But when they weren’t trialling, Shayne said let’s try our luck, sure we were throwing her to the wolves but why don’t we give her a crack. She has speed and if you lead around The Gardens, anything can happen … and it did.”
The obvious danger tonight for Caitlyn Keeping is Falcon’s Fury, the track record holder at Bathurst.
“Yeah he’s a super dog, and he’s run super times everywhere,” Roberts said. “I’m sure Paul and Pam (Braddon) have got him primed for the heats and he’s the danger.
“She’s pulled up a treat, but whether Friday night has taken the edge off her - because we have never backed her up like this before – we’ll have to wait and see.
“But you can’t die wondering.”
