Sunburnt Highway is set to be the surprise packet in Thursday night's Group 1 Beteasy Dapto Megastar final with a great chance of giving owner-trainer Judith Richardson and husband John their biggest win.
The Richardsons took out the 1994 Nowra Puppy Classic with Electric Jewel, who, along with her litter sister Electric Opal, a winner of 12 races, gave them their boost in the sport.
"We had been gifted a bitch named Electra Bale from leading breeder Paul Wheeler and when mated to Antiquity in 1992, she produced a litter of 11 puppies who could all run, with Electric Opal and Jewel the most successful,'' John Richardson said.
"Judy was 16 and I was 18 when we were married and because we had no money, our only affordable social outing was going to our local greyhound track, Wollongong, on Monday nights.
"Those visits to the old Wollongong course piqued our interest in the sport but after we got involved we were working so hard we had little time to train greyhounds.
"We had a bread run, then a grocery shop on the south coast before opening a seafood business at Kiama, which grew immensely and at one stage was turning over $2000 every hour.
"After working seven days a week for 30 years, without ever taking a single holiday, we were ready to really enjoy the sport when we went full-time into greyhounds.''
The Richardsons have had several handy performers, the best in recent years being Young Gun and his litter brother Ace I Am, who earned $117,000 between them from 2015 to 2017.
Young Gun contested 120 races for 16 wins and 58 placings while the equally durable Ace I Am faced the starter on 119 occasions for four wins and 41 placings.
"Judith and I have had some handy performers but none in the class of Sunburnt Highway,'' John Richardson said.
The Richardsons have always preferred Sunburnt Highway to be drawn off the track so box five in Thursday night's Group 1 at Dapto, with little early speed around him, gives their smart beginner a second-to-none chance of leading around the crucial first turn.''
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THE Ladbrokes Vic Peters Classic, postponed due to the GRNSW + Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase, will now be held at Wentworth Park over just two meetings, with heats on October 27 and the final on November 3.
The Vic Peters, first held at Harold Park in 1951 when taken out by Sharid, is NSW greyhound racing's oldest age classic event.
The race was held at Harold Park until 1987 when Alice Irene landed the final on Wentworth Park's grass surface, with the Don McMillan-trained Leon Mal winning the first Vic Peters Classic run on sand at WP in 1993.
The Anthony Azzopardi-trained Zambora Brockie established a race record of 29.58 over 520m at Wentworth Park in 2015 with Crash Bandicoot successful in 2017 in 30.21sec.
Among the greats to win the Classic are Black Top, Sammie Sparrow, Shapely Escort, Woolley Wilson, Brother Fox, Worth Doing, Go Wild Teddy, Collision, Spring Gun and Ando's Mac.
The only dead-heat was in 1963 when the judge could not separate Test Pattern and the Victorian-trained Seraphino.
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WHEN Extreme Chance won at Wagga last week she notched win number 45 at her 120th start.
Trained at Wallandbeen, near Cootamundra, by Lorraine and Jack Roy for owner-breeder Michael "Harvey'' Hugo, Extreme Chance is likely to be retired around Christmas.
"She is due in season at that time and as soon as she does we will mate her with Barcia Bale,'' Jack Roy said.
"Extreme Chance has been a marvellous sprinter because apart from her 45 wins, she has rung up 34 second and 15 third placings.
"And in several of her seconds she has been beaten in a photo-finish.''
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Blue Lorian's Richmond 717m record set in April, 2011, received a decent nudge when Poco Dorado led throughout at the Londonderry circuit on Friday night.
Poco Dorado stopped the clock at 41.67, a mere .01sec wide of the Peter Whye-trained Blue Lorian's time standard.
