Given the choice of boxes one or six, the majority of greyhound trainers would opt for the rails.
Given their history with the green rug in big race finals, you’d expect Deb COLEMAN would have more reason to want the red.
But, with just the one and the six still available, as Deb stepped up for her pick in the box draw at Maitland last Thursday night, she knew exactly which one she wanted.
“When I drew the six I said thank you very much, I much preferred that to the one,” she said of drawing the green for her bitch She’s Gifted in tonight’s Regional Final of the GRNSW + Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase.
“She prefers to actually cross dogs rather than have dogs coming across her. We were hoping we drew out wider to be honest, but the six is better than the one for us. But, in saying that, the six hasn’t actually been that good for us either in previous big finals.
“We have had the six in the (2015) final of the Australian Cup, and the six in the final of the Golden Easter Egg three years ago (both with Recruitment). Well, I guess we’re overdue for a change of luck in.”
She’s Gifted gave little else a chance in her heat last week clocking 24.92s to win. It was her fifth win in succession and 11th win in her 21 starts. But that time, while handy, is not the fastest she has been around Maitland. That was posted back in December, a flying 24.78s, but that was before she joined the COLEMAN kennel.
“We had been watching her for a little while,” she explained. “She just had to improve her box manners a little which she did do when she came down to Victoria.
“We saw the times she had been running, that time at Maitland included, and noticed she wasn’t jumping that Well but she was still running really great times. Then when she came down here she was under the care of Anthony Azzopardi and she improved her box manners, so we thought about it for a while and then decided to act.
“We struck a deal before the final of the Launching Pad at Sandown in March, on the condition that she raced in the previous owner’s name, and we would collect her straight after the race.”
Deb collected She’s Gifted and took her the following week to Brisbane for the heats of the Group 2 Futurity. She finished fourth, made the final, and a week later flew out of box seven and led all the way in 29.74s to win the feature race.
Since she took over the training, She’s Gifted has had 12 starts for seven wins, a placing and four fourths.
The fact that they decided to go to Maitland for the Regional Qualifying heats, was almost by chance.
“The fact that she had been there was a big thing. We were going to go to Nowra originally because I know that track reasonably Well. But I would have had to take her up to Nowra to trial before she went around whereas she’d been to Maitland, and when they extended the noms … we decided to go there”.
While Deb and She’s Gifted drew box six, the one went to Big Black, who ironically now comes into strong consideration due to the draw. He’ll camp behind the leaders and will be threatening in the home straight.
The Maitland final has drawn a strong field with Darren Russell, who qualified Snug at Lismore on Tuesday, having another chance to qualify semi-finalists, with Precious Sal (5) and Yeah Okay (8) engaged.
Precious Sal scorched around the track from box one and clocked the quickest heat time of 24.82s, while Yeah Okay put in an eye-catcher finishing second to Flying Ella in 24.97s. Both Flying Ella and fellow heat winner Zipping Buddy also much be in the calculations for the final.
