Jabeni gave Tamworth trainer Mark Craig his first Wentworth Park success in two decades in the sport when he stormed home to win in a personal best 29.93 over 520m on Friday, TAB Million Dollar Chase night.
Even more remarkable was that Jabeni's run home time of 11.67 was far and away the fastest of the star studded meeting, easily eclipsing the figures posted by each of the big race winners.
“I train Jabeni for my cousin Johnny Barnden, but until his death the late Troy Donaldson was the dog's trainer,'' Craig, a coal-miner, said.
"Jabeni is a hard dog to handle and after Troy passed away his partner Chrystal Hensing decided the dog was too difficult for her and their son Jett to look after so asked me to become his trainer.
"Jabeni's Wenty win was timely because 24 hours later the Curly Craig Memorial Maiden, named in honour of my late father, was run and won by Johnny Cleghorn's dog Power Grip on our local Tamworth track.
"I have trained greyhounds on-and-off for 20 years but grew up with them as my dad Rodney, always known as Curly, always had dogs at home in Tamworth.''
Lithgow, founded in 1928 a year, after the Australian birth of mechanical lure greyhound racing and Australia's oldest track, reopens on Saturday, October 31.
The historic course has been closed for 14 months while safety features were upgraded and heats of the club's time honoured Golden Muzzle, traditionally one of the sport's major non-TAB races, will be conducted on that date over 506m.
Other race distances will be 287m and 414m but club president Rod Bragg insists racing over the 506m will be encouraged.
"Over the past few weeks our trial mornings have seen an average of 60 to 70 dogs taking a look at the track,'' Bragg said.
"Apart from the Golden Muzzle heats, the opening day will also pay tribute to a trio of deceased Lithgow stalwart trainers, John Brain, Harry Hampson and Dave Mathias, with races named in their honour.''
When I attended Saturday afternoon race meetings at Lithgow in the 1960s, the club's greyhound racing licence was under the control of the local hospital!
Nobody could blame Wallerawang trainer Ross Davidson for being somewhat relieved that the Million Dollar Chase series has concluded.
Under covid-19 restrictions Ross was forced to drive weekly to the NSW border to collect greyhounds from Victoria's Andrea Dailly kennels, returning them after each of their racing commitments.
"I've calculated that during the series I drove 15,530km but while the dogs I transported did not win any of the major races last Friday night, they earned a total of $43,450 prizemoney with our 18 starters notching five wins and six placings,'' Davidson said.
Trainer Robert Britton is hopeful champion stayer Tornado Tears, scratched from Friday's group 1 Sydney Cup final after tearing skin off his pads during his heat win, will be sidelined less than a month.
"It all depends on how quickly the pads heal and it's impossible to predict accurately how long that will take, but hopefully Tornado Tears will be back shortly,'' Britton said.
Tornado Tears' younger brother Here's Tears, also trained by Britton, took out the $100,000 to the winner Cup, in which up-and-coming locally trained stayer Tap Out Sniper dropped a hind leg muscle.
