BOOK Of Luck's appearance in Saturday night's final of the Group 2 Summer Distance Plate at Wentworth Park not only gives battling bush trainer Craig Sheridan a chance of landing his biggest race but epitomises the bond between greyhound folk.
In last Saturday's first heat of the 720m Plate, Book Of Luck (pictured), a long-distance rookie, stunned racegoers by taking the lead with a lap to go before holding on strongly to beat crack siblings Blue Moon Rising and Veloce Nero.
Book Of Luck, who stopped the clock at a slick 42.23sec, has now advanced to this Saturday's $40,000 to the winner final where she will exit box six.
Sheridan, who trains a small team at Ballalaba, near Braidwood in the Queanbeyan region, disclosed he had only secured Book Of Luck through the generosity of leading trainer JODIE Lord and her husband Andy.
"They knew I was keen to establish a decent breeding line so presented me with a lightly-raced but well-bred bitch named Book Of Days, who had won four from 15 starts,'' Sheridan said.
"Book Of Days was sired by top stud dog Spiral Nikita, and the Lords told me to breed a litter from her and then to retain the best bitch among her puppies.
"They assured me that by doing so I would have a good chance of establishing a strong dam line for future breeding.
"Book Of Luck, who is from Book Of Days' litter sired by My Bro Fabio and whelped in September, 2015, is the bitch I selected.
"After she won her heat last Saturday, among the first congratulatory phone calls I received was from JODIE and Andy Lord.
"Obviously Book Of Luck faces a tough task up against Poco Dorado in Saturday's Summer Plate but she can only improve as a stayer.
"She won her Summer Distance Plate heat off a preparation comprising just two 630m races at Nowra and then a pair of 520m events at that track.
"When Book Of Luck tackled the Summer Distance Plate heat she was having her first test over 720 metres.''
xxxx
GREYHOUND trainers need to be resilient and dedicated but not many can match the enthusiasm of veteran Northern Rivers couple Evelyn and Leonard Harris.
Their outstanding sprinter Cosmic Bonus was the unluckiest runner in Saturday night's heats of the Group 1 Ladbrokes Paws Of Thunder at Wentworth Park, finishing second to Cash Point after being skittled at box rise.
Cosmic Bonus, after being pushed back to last, surged into fourth position on the back straight before rattling home to go down by just over a length in 30.10sec.
The Harrises, who are in their 70s, had no time to reflect on Cosmic Bonus' mighty run however as they needed to be back at their Grafton kennels early Sunday to feed their other greyhounds.
"We had no time to spare because we got home from Wentworth Park at 3am Sunday, and had to get away not much more than two hours later as we had several runners at Queensland's Capalaba straight track on the same day,'' Leonard said.
"Luckily I was able to pick up a mate and he drove through to Queensland to take us and the dogs we had racing there.''
Fortunately the Harrises were rewarded when Black Lex Bonus took out the fifth grade Dr John Murray Stakes at Capalaba.
Black Lex Bonus, just 21 months old, is from the first litter whelped by Evelyn and Leonard's former outstanding sprinter Magic Display, who won 26 of 96 races.
