"I had been trying to buy a couple of dogs from Paul and while he would not sell them to me at the time, he presented me with Grandstand for free after the greyhound blotted his copybook by performing erratically in a race,'' McHattan said."I have since given Grandstand eight starts for three wins and four placings and while he has not raced or even trialled as far as the 400m of the Dubbo heats, good judges who have seen the dog assure me he will see out the journey.
"They base that on Grandstand's run home times in shorter races and there is no doubt this dog can run as he has trialled 18.20s over 318m at Dubbo, only a couple of tenths outside the record.''
"To defray the cost of the mating I talked a couple of friends, Graham Blunt and Steve Sharp, into throwing in $1600 each towards the service fee with the promise they would each get a puppy when Tick Away Fire whelped,'' Moroney said.
"Graham's pup is Fire On Ice while Steve and his daughter Lisa's youngster turned out to be Arctic Kingdom and they entrusted them to me to train."Fire On Ice has won 10 races and $28,000 while Arctic Kingdom has won seven races and over $12,000 prizemoney.
"Arctic Kingdom is racing really well and will be going around again from box six in race six at LADBROKES GARDENS on Friday following his 515m win there last Friday.
"Fire Legend, one of litter which I retained as owner, began his career in my kennel but is now with Jason Thompson in Melbourne.
"Fire Legend is the quickest of them all and has won 10 of just 17 starts and earned $37,000 but has been sidelined with a bruised stopper bone.
''But he is flying again and has just trialled 24.16 in a post-to-post hit-out at Sandown, time equivalent to a flying 29.20 over the 515m trip there.''
