When Andrew Bell was looking for a special dog to enter in Friday night's heats of the Ladbrokes RichmondCannonball he approached owner Brent Kline to purchase his greyhound Isurava.
Five years ago Bell had trained Isla's Ivy for Kline so while Isurava was not for sale his owner agreed to send him to Sydney to have a crack at the Cannonball.
"This is a race I've always wanted to win because I have run second and third in different finals,'' Bell said.
"I watch a lot of Queensland races and felt Isurava was the ideal dog for the Cannonball because if a dog clocks 13.40 for the first split in 431m races at Ipswich it is flying, yet Isurava was able to get down to 13.29.
"And as he had won over 431m in near record times of 24.77, 24.81 and 24.81 there I was thrilled when Brent sent the dog down to me for this 400m Richmond series.
"I gave Isurava a trial at Richmond last week and despite slipping over coming out of the boxes he still recorded 22.70 at his first look at the track.
"He likes to be drawn wide so I'm happy seeing him in box seven in Friday's heats.
"Brent Kline and I have had a long and happy association as his greyhound Isla's Ivy, who won 15 races, helped me to nudge champion trainer Andy Lord out of the 2018 Goulburn trainers' premiership by winning on the final day of that competition.''
"Ron Marsden has won nine races with Hardaway Bandit but he and his wife are going on a long holiday and because Hardaway Bandit is a bad kennel dog he knew he would have trouble finding someone to look after him,'' Bell said.
"So he presented the dog to me as a gift.''
Despite drawing box one Hardaway Bandit faces a massive task as he is up against last year's Cannonball winner Lepidoptera and Vamoose, the Grafton Thunderbolt winner, who broke the Richmond 400m record with a 22.36 performance on July 14.
Two decades ago the RichmondCannonball was among the nation's most renowned short course races but diminished prizemoney, which saw the winner's prize dip to as low as $5000, caused the event to lose its lustre.
This year the winner of the July 28 final will walk away with $15,000 and the injection of increased stakes has resulted in four outstanding heats.
Sam Sultana's wonderful Yuko Girl, a prolific group one finalist and a winner of 21 races and $187,000 in stakes, will exit box one in heat one and Hank Vanderburg's Speeding FINE, a winner of 13 from 16 starts has box one in heat two.
New track record holder Vamoose's very quick kennelmate Johnny Red, who has won 13 from 29 outings, has box four in heat three but faces stern opposition from the Peter Lagogiane-trained Armatree Cash in box two.
Lagogiane's dog won over 400m at Richmond on July 14 in 22.59 but reeled off a sensational first split of 6.45.
Among the most successful trainers in the Cannonball has been Syd Swain, who trained 2003 Golden Easter Egg winner Cyrus The Virus.
Swain was preparing Coconut Chloe for this year's race but won't have a runner as she has gone amiss.
He has won the Cannonball four times, with Ebony Falcon, Silver Label and with dual winner Penny Dancer.
"Penny Dancer broke the track record the first time she won it and after breaking down returned to racing to win the final the following year,'' Swain said.
Another fast greyhound to win the time honoured race was Lord Darth, who was trained by the late Warren Wilson.
Wilson, who passed away recently, had great success in the sport with dogs like Birchgrove Tiger and Victor Jara, who was runner-up behind the great General Jeff in the 1980 National Derby at Wentworth Park.
