Lismore Ladbrokes Super Series Win For Ripple River

Trevor Rice trains most of the greyhounds he owns but has no regrets about handing Ripple River over to fellow trainer Stephen Keep following the bitch's win in Tuesday night's $7500 to the winner Ladbrokes Super Series final at Lismore. 

Ripple River has now had five wins and three placings and having turned two in May has a bright future. 

Former Sydneysider Rice, now based at Leeville, 10 minutes out of Casino, said: "I bought Ripple River and her brother Mandoza Ripple for $10,000 when they were ready race. 

"Mandoza Ripple, who has won two from four starts for me, was fine, but for some reason Ripple River didn't like me. 

"When I got her and put her in the galloping yard I had trouble catching her and it seemed we just didn't get on, so I asked Stephen to take her. 

"He has done a fantastic job with Ripple River and Tuesday's was a terrific prizemoney race to win on a country track.'' 

Rice, 65, has been a trainer since he was 17, having great success with former top class stayer My Boy Brodie. 

In May, 2016, My Boy Brodie won over 720m at Wentworth Park in a fast 42.24s and was retired after winning 15 races. 

"My Boy Brodie is still with me as a pet, he is trotting around the property right now,'' said Rice. 

WHEN Dandy Dale lines up for race four, a 520m fifth grade, at Dapto on Thursday night the Stuart Hazlett-trained dog will be chasing his 18th win at start number 120. 

Dandy Dale led throughout in a tidy 30.18s over 520m at Nowra on Monday, lifting his earnings to $52,325, a tally accrued through his 17 wins and 35 placings. 

"Not bad for a greyhound who turned four in January,'' said Hazlett, who trains Dandy Dale for the dog's breeder Daniel Zahra. 

"I named Dandy Dale after my eight-year-old son Dale, and the name has been lucky for me because my only Wentworth Park winners have been Dandy Dale and Dale's Jet,'' Zahra said. 

"I have been involved with greyhounds since the 1970s and those Wentworth Park wins will stay in my memory forever because as far as I'm concerned, winning at Wenty has always been the pinnacle for a greyhound owner. 

"Champness Gal, the dam of Dandy Dale, comes from a consistently successful dam line and I believe that in every facet of breeding animals, the dam is much more influential than the sire. 

"For many years I bred pacers, and also raised prize canaries, and always found a good female producer was more important in regards to the success of the offspring than a champion father.''

A cut foot pad is the reason Karina Britton's exciting prospect Wow is missing from Saturday night's heats of the Group 1 Ladbrokes Vic Peters Classic at Wentworth Park. 

"It's not serious but was enough to prevent me nominating him for the big race,'' Britton said. 

"Wow is such a sook he had to be sedated while the cut was treated.'' 

The aptly-named Wow has had four wins and three seconds from eight starts and was far from disgraced when second, after leading to the home turn, behind the more experienced Ferrari Blaster at his Wentworth Park debut on June 24. 

Wow might have been beaten a length but still managed to break the 30s barrier, stopping the clock at 29.92s.