John Smart kind of knew what it was like to win a big feature race. Quite a few years back now he had been the strapper for the John Hawkes’ stable and led champion galloper Octagonal back into the winner’s stall after several of his Group 1 victories.
As a greyhound trainer he has come close to those major successes, but on Saturday night at Dubbo, he and wife Julie hit the jackpot when Showman Jack took out the world’s richest middle distance event, the Country Classic.
“This is unbelievable. This is what dreams are made of. It’s like in the olden days when I was strapping Octagonal. It was like that a little bit. It’s unreal,” an ecstatic John said after the victory in the $125,000 to the winner event.
“I've been in a couple of Group races but I've never pulled one off, I’ve run second, third, but now … I’ve won one, this is unbelievable. It's a good feeling.”
Showman Jack was away well but not as fast as Victorian Ailee Bale who led the field around the first corner, with the Smart’s dog in pursuit.
Showman Jack was giving the leader three or four lengths up the back straight but knuckled down to his work and swinging for home had the leader in his sights, racing past to win by 2¼ lengths in 34.48s from a gallant Ailee Bale with another Victorian Jackpot Joan grabbing third.
“I can't even explain the feeling,” said Julie immediately after the race. “You always hope and dream but yeah, I didn't expect to actually do it.”
Asked what a win in a big race like this means, Julie said: “I can be left with hardly any mortgage.”
“We brought him back from split webbing and he still wasn't quite right, he wasn't jumping as well. So we gave him another break, and then I said to John: “oh, those heats (of the Country Classic) are on at Dubbo, do you want to do it?” And he goes: “Oh, yeah, just throw him in, we’ll go.””
The Smarts now have a decision to make whether to continue stepping the dog up to the longer distance and target the $500,000 Ladbrokes 715 in May, or freshen him for the Ladbrokes Golden Easter Egg beginning next weekend.
“There is a big chance (of going to the 715) or do I freshen him up and go to the Easter Egg? I'll just see how he pulls up after this and then we'll assess it,” John said.
