It didn’t have the fanfare of her brilliant victories in the TAB Million Dollar Chase Grand Final back in May, or the Ladbrokes Golden Easter Egg a month earlier, but the victory in a four-dog field at Wentworth Park on an unseasonably cold November night, will go down as one of her most significant.
On Wednesday night at Wentworth Park, She’s A Pearl became the greatest prizemoney earner in the history of greyhound racing. Her victory in the Ladbrokes Switch Free-For-All was worth $4,500 to the winner, but that took her career tally to $1,367,970, moving ahead of the previous mark of $1,365,175 held for the past four and a half years by Victorian stayer Fanta Bale.
And while she only had three rivals to beat, it was like watching the old She’s A Pearl, lightning at the start posting 5.38s to the first mark, and clocking a stunning 29.34s. In her previous 23 Wentworth Park starts only twice has she run faster. In the Million Dollar Chase semi-final she posted 29.30s, and then in the grand final she ran 29.32s.
There have been some who wondered whether she would get to this point. After her MDC win in May she came on season, then suffered a hip support injury, then was struck down by a virus soon after her racetrack return. She looked anything but the superstar she had previously been. It was then that trainer JODIE Lord and her husband Andy decided to just leave her “in the kennel” until she was right.
“I knew she would do that,” Andy said after the performance. “It’s only been the last five weeks that she has really hit her straps again. She was probably a little bit over the top the first go (last week at Wenty when she finished second at her first run in six weeks), but tonight she was right.
“She went from coming on season, finishing that and everything was going well, then she hurt her hip support, then she was getting a virus … it all just banked up on her, so we left her in the kennel and waited until she started shining again, and it was only five weeks ago she started to fly and I knew I had her back then.
“I never doubted I would get her back. I have no doubt if I had her right at the MDC (in September) she would have won it. I had to take the risk and I knew in the back of my mind that she wasn’t completely there, but there’s not a million dollar race coming around every week, so you have to have a go if she is close to right and she was very close.”
Asked what the prizemoney record meant to he and JODIE, Andy paused, asked JODIE, then replied: “Looks it’s good recognition for her (She’s A Pearl). There’s no doubt she’s a champion. I know records are there to be broken, but if she was to come out and win the ($1 million) Phoenix or something like that, that would be a record never to be broken.”
The Phoenix is a target for She’s A Pearl and no doubt following this performance slot holders will be gathering to secure her for the December event. But Andy said they may also look at the upcoming Melbourne Cup.
Heats of the Cup will be held on November 19 with the final on November 26 at Sandown Park.
“We’ll look at the calendar now and see what’s coming up. We’re thinking of taking her and trialling her next week in Melbourne,” Andy confirmed. “Now she’s done that, we will have a look at all the dates and if we can get her into the Melbourne Cup we would be mad not to go for it.”
