Oh Oh Range goes into Saturday night's $500,000 to the winner final of The Ladbrokes 715 at LADBROKES GARDENS as fastest qualifier but trainer Dave Irwin believes he needs to be up near the early lead if he is to win.
"Oh Oh Range has a nice draw in box two and went super when he led all the way in his heat last Saturday,'' Irwin said.
"But he is essentially a big track dog who is not really all that well suited to a tight track like The Gardens.
"If he does what he did last week he should be hard to beat but if he gets behind a couple of other dogs in the early stages he might not reproduce his heat form.''
Last week Oh Oh Range came from box five and led throughout, covering the 715m in 41.42, just .02sec outside Cool Bourbski's track record.
Miss Ezmae, who has drawn the rails box in the final, was the second fastest heat winner, exiting box four to win easily in 41.73.
When Glen Munro, a retired Northern Territory road train driver, reared a litter of pups for breeder Ned Snow, he was rewarded with the pick of two dogs from the litter.
The pups were whelped in March 2020, and were by Out Of Range from Aussie Diamond, with Munro selecting the blue dog which now races as Oh Oh Range.
On Saturday night Munro's pick of the litter will be aiming for a $500,000 first prize, the reward for the winner of the world's richest ever distance greyhound race.
"I am travelling down from my home in Gympie, Queensland, to see the race on Saturday night and that is when I will meet Oh Oh Range's trainer Dave Irwin for the first time,'' Munro said.
"Although I drove manganese road trains in Groote Eylandt, in the Northern Territory, for many years, my background had long been in greyhound racing.
"My father John Munro trained dogs for 40 years and had a top notcher called Player's Moss as well as training a dog which once ran a track record on Brisbane's old Gabba track.''
Trainer Larry Warren was rewarded for his endless patience when She's Debacle won her first race last Thursday - at start number 47.
She went into the 520m maiden event at Dapto with one second and five third placings from 46 races but after jumping in front and being outpaced, she came from fourth on the home turn to win in 30.58.
"She's Debacle is looking for a middle distance and I'm waiting to find a suitable 600m race at Dapto for her,'' Warren said.
"I've hung onto her because she is a litter sister to What A Debacle, who has just been retired after scoring 25 wins and 29 placings and earning $100,000 in prizemoney.
"Because What A Debacle was so good I thought there must be something in my bitch's makeup that would eventually come out.''
Warren, 64, got his first greyhound in 1981 and at one stage worked alongside the late Kevin Johns, who was a railway signalman before winning fame as the trainer of dozens of top class dogs including 1986 Paws Of Thunder winner Memories Gate and 1986 National Derby winner Holstein Boy.
