For Ruth Matic, the record-breaking run from Embye at Temora Greyhounds on Sunday evening was a special one, but that doesn’t mean it was a surprise.
“He’s just done in the race what he’s done in trials,” said Matic, a trainer from Canyonleigh in the Southern Highlands of NSW.
Embye’s rise has been a speedy one, although it has not been without its challenges. The near 3-year-old dog has made a habit of finding ways to keep Matic on her toes, often finding himself in traffic on the track, and it was no different on Sunday night at Temora Greyhounds.
“We kept saying how quick he was but then you put him in a race, and he runs up bums and he gets beat so you think ‘oh what are you doing!’.
“No he didn’t [have a clean start).
“That was his first 5 box and he’s just desperate for the rails. He just seems to be good at running up behind and getting into all the trouble in the world which seems to bring him undone all the time.”
However, once he found space in his first start at Temora, he turned the run into something special, pulling away from the field to claim victory by 16.25 lengths.
“Once he got on the fence he was right.
“I was just wrapped with the way he came down the straight. That long straight just suited him down to the ground.
“He can really motor when he gets a clean run – he really gallops.”
After running the 590m at Bulli in a time of 33.04secs last December, just 0.5secs off the track record, Matic is now keen to put Embye to the test out over a longer distance, with one key test being whether he make a clean break early.
“He was .05 or .06sec off the record at Bulli.
“If you watch that race, in the first few strides he gets held up so I think he could have broken the record there if he hadn’t of been held up. It wasn’t by much but enough to cost him that potential record.
“We want to get him up to 700m. He has a few niggling injuries so if not for them he would have been up to it by now so hopefully this time he can just get a clean break and get up there.”
With speed as his greatest quality, Embye’s success over the longer run may be dependent on whether it is something he can sustain.
“We just want to get him up to 700m but the only concern I have is that he goes so quick over 600m, can he keep it up over 700m?
“If he can, he’ll be something else or maybe he’ll get tired. Until you put them over it, you will never know.”
