Sensational prospect Isle Of Rose maintained her unblemished record when she won her heat of the East Maitland Bowling Club Les Darcy Cup at Maitland on Monday, taking her record to five wins from as many appearances.
Isle Of Rose with connections
Owned and trained by pro golfer Troy Macdonald, Isle Of Rose took the lead at the first turn and won easily in 24.92, with the brilliant Nangar Jim, lifting his tally to seven wins from his past nine outings in taking out the other heat in 25.06.
Isle Of Rose was bred by Macdonald's mother-in-law Lorraine Atchison, and is from a litter whelped two years ago by Barcia Bale from Hello Mavis, who won 19 races for her central coast owner-breeder.
Atchison said: "I gave Troy the pick of the litter when the pups were seven or eight months old and he took so long to decide I started to wonder whether he was going to wait until they were broken in.
"But while the whole litter is good he certainly made the right choice.
"Isle Of Rose's siblings include Tarawi Tiger, who has won nine from 20 races and has broken 30 in each of three wins at Wentworth Park, Tarawi Indy, who won in 30.06 at Wenty and Tarawi Maple and Tarawi Moo, who won their Gosford maidens in 29.65 and 29.84 respectively.
"It takes my breath away when Troy tells me some of the times Isle Of Rose can run in trials.
"And she can get 520m because he took her to Wentworth Park and despite slipping on the mat and clocking a steady 5.58 first split, Isle Of Rose covered the distance in a very fast 29.66 trial.''
Troy Macdonald said: "Isle Of Rose comes out nice without lid-pinging but she has super acceleration when she hits the ground.
"I will go a long while before I get another one as good as her.''
Box draw for the Les Darcy Cup will be made on Thursday, with Troy Macdonald offering: "It doesn't matter much where Isle Of Rose draws but if I had a preference it would be for box eight to ensure she had room to move early.''
Isle Of Rose
Craig Last is still seeking that elusive top notch city greyhound but the quiet achiever landed yet another treble at Maitland on Monday.
Last, who trains a team of 14 greyhounds at Darawank, 10km north of Forster, won 400m races with Scarlett's Gem and Funky Duncan and a 450m event with Coco's Kaos.
"I've been in the sport 36 years and think I have won five trebles, including about five weeks before Monday's Maitland meeting,'' Last said.
"My biggest win was in January in the famous Butch Monkley Memorial Maiden at Wauchope with Kiss My Kaos, while I have old Candy Kaos qualified for Saturday's final of the $10,000 Laurie Arnott Masters at Grafton.
"Candy Kaos finished second in the fastest heat, won by Hardaway Ranger.
"Another very good dog I trained was Dissident, who won seven of 14 starts for me in 2017 and broke the record at Taree.''
Like many of his contemporaries, Craig Last became involved with greyhounds since childhood when he began assisting another trainer exercise his dogs.
Last said: "As a kid I lived near Peter Bird, a retired police officer who was having a bit of success training greyhounds.
"He was friends with my parents and as I was fascinated by these dogs it wasn't long before I was helping him with them.
"Peter gave me my first greyhound, Nippy Tequila, who had a single win and ran about 19 seconds from 22 races.''
