Jordan Tweddle is accustomed to producing greyhounds for boilover wins in feature races. Back in October last year his bitch Light And Lily took out the Group 1 Peter Mosman Opal as a $31 chance.
With his maiden Group 1 under his belt, Jordan is now hunting a bigger prize - the biggest in fact - the world’s richest greyhound race, the TAB Million Dollar Chase and he took a huge step on Thursday night when his dog Soul To Squeeze scored in the Dapto Regional Final.
And again, to the chagrin of most punters, it was another upset win, Soul To Squeeze starting at $26.
“I wasn’t too confident. I didn’t have a wager,” Jordan said.
“I wasn’t expecting him to go that fast. His preparation was good, and he came out tonight and led and got the money.
“The last couple of weeks he has had more preparation because last week (the Dapto meeting) was called off (due to inclement weather) so he’s had a few trials and a few hand slips and a few runs at home.”
Soul To Squeeze had led last week in the heat but didn’t run out the trip strongly and weakened for third running 30.34s. He had never broken 30s in 13 starts at Dapto, but on Thursday night that all changed.
He again charged from the boxes running 5.36s for the first section but this time he kept going and clocked 29.75s, four lengths faster than he has ever gone at Dapto.
Second went to Group 1 Dapto Megastar winner Ritza Donna who stormed home after being checked going into the back straight, while the favourite, Sound Of Silence, also had a checkered path but he was able to work his way into third and hold on to also qualify for the Million Dollar Chase semis on April 29.
Asked if he dared think about the prospect of winning $1 million, Jordan - who admitted the win was up there with his best – was keeping calm.
“It’s good, but it’s still a long way away,” he said “We’ll see how he goes. If he can draw a nice box, you never know.”
