Ellangowan trainer Fred Swain has never a greyhound ready to go when the Ladbrokes Lismore Maiden series rolled around. That was until now.
Swain will box four runners in Tuesday night’s heats of the series, hoping to get some qualifiers through to next week’s $20,000 to the winner Maiden Final.
Swain trained smart bitch Fay’s Magic throughout her career from 2015 to 2017. She won 17 races and was placed 30 times around the Northern Rivers and Queensland tracks, before heading to the breeding barn and being mated with Barcia Bale.
That mating produced six pups and at Lismore on Tuesday four of them (it was to be five but one had to be scratched) will make their racing debuts.
“She was a very handy bitch,” Swain said of Fay’s Magic. “I’ve never had a runner at the right time for it (the Lismore Maiden) and the timing was right this year, so I have set them for the series.”
Swain will have Gloves Back On in heat one, Rattle The Gate in heat two, Tribal Magic in heat four, and All Hands Off in heat five.
“All Hands Off, she is the best of them at the moment,” Swain said. “She broke in the best but there wasn’t much between them … maybe a length and half between them all in breaking.
“They are all pretty smart to be honest. A lot of them have trialled under the 24s there, but at the moment, she is probably the best one.”
All Hands Off officially trialled at Lismore in a slick 23.85s and Swain has no doubts she will handle the box seven draw in the heats.
“She won’t have any problems being drawn out wide,” he said. “She can run faster than that (her 23.85s trial), but you’ve just got to wait and see what happens in a race.”
Rattle The Gate has trialled in 24.06s and Gloves Back On has been around Lismore in a performance trial in 24.12s.
The Maiden Heats have once again attracted some potentially smart young dogs, with leading Queensland trainer Tony Brett crossing the border with four greyhounds for the series – Hara’s Clyde in heat three, Hara’s Penny in heat four, Skilled in heat five and Duplicated in heat six.
