Salad Dodger toppled the great She's A Pearl in his heat and smashed the long standing track record in the process but trainer Anthony Azzopardi has no illusions about the tough task his dog faces to repeat the performance in Sunday's Ladbrokes Temora Cup.
With $40,000 up for grabs, the 457m Cup is the richest event held at Temora, where greyhounds have been racing since 1957.
Salad Dodger led throughout to beat She's A Pearl in his heat, stopping the clock at 25.42, .03sec inside the record set by Cawborne Marty on June 7, 2020.
Salad Dodger has drawn awkwardly in Sunday's Cup final, set to exit box five outside wide runners Tarawi Ferrari (three) and Quick Lomar (four), while She's A Peal seems to have a near ideal box two slot.
Anthony Azzopardi, the former Sydneysider now based at Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, trains Salad Dodger for his owner-breeder Aiden Lee, who hails from Coonamble, NSW.
"Salad Dodger is a notch below being in the absolutely elite class but no matter where I take him he races well, always tries hard, is a tenacious chaser and normally a good beginner,'' Azzopardi said.
"He has won 15 of 39 races and it's not so much box five I'm worried about, as he has won twice from box four and twice from box six, but because She's A Pearl looks to be so well placed.
"When he won his heat Salad Dodger was having his first crack at the 457m trip at Temora although I had trialled him over 330m there and he went really well.
"I understand he was named after his owner or a friend of his who reckons salad is food suitable only for rabbits.''
Slowest heat winner Quick Lomar, who raced wide before winning in 25.76, can get down to 25.60 or a little worse with a clear run according to his owner-trainer Nathan McMenamin.
McMenamin, who breeds, rears and trains greyhounds on eight hectares at Thurgoona, a suburb of Albury, rates Temora his favourite course.
"I enjoy living here but it is a difficult place to train greyhounds,'' McMenamin explained.
"It was great when there were tracks at Albury and WANGARATTA but my nearest track now is Wagga, which is 90 minutes away, while Shepparton is a two hour drive and Temora, a fantastic course, takes me two hours and 20 minutes.
"I have been training on and off for 15 years, and while my mentor was Theo Dahl, from Benalla, who bred the great dog Andy Palmer, I also learned much by simply watching how the leading trainers handled their dogs.
"When I raced on the old Canberra track I was also intrigued by how Andy and Jodie Lord cared for their greyhounds, and also picked up hints by watching Melbourne trainer Jason Thompson.
"In the Cup final if Quick Lomar can get to the outside of the field, where he wants to be, he can get well under 25.70.
"I'm already planning on breeding a litter from his sister Perfect Lomar, who won four of nine starts before being retired.
