It doesn’t have the lengthy history of the club’s time-honoured feature event, but the Casino Greyhound Club’s new feature race, The Richmond, does join their Cup as the club’s richest event.
The Group 3 Casino Cup is an feature event regularly chased by local and visiting trainers each November, but the club has now added the new middle-distance event which will also carry total prizemoney of $34,000 of which the winner will received $25,000.
Heats of The Richmond will be held tomorrow afternoon with the final to be run under lights next Tuesday evening, February 13.
“We were delighted to be involved when Greyhound Racing NSW approached us with the idea for the race,” Casino President Mitch Northfield said.
“It’s a great concept, both our race and also the new one that has been programmed at Grafton, The Clarence. Both races are named after iconic rivers synonymous with each town, and both races fit in perfectly in the lead up to the rich Country Classic race at Dubbo in March.
“The club is very happy with the quality of dogs we have been able to attract for Thursday’s heats. When the race was announced we expected that we would get a few Queenslanders cross the border, and we have got some quality ones coming for the heats.”
Leading Queensland trainer Tom Tzouvelis is bringing four greyhounds for the heats - Pursuer, Scintillate, Sorority, and Sanisha.
The quartet all contested the final of the Group 1 $100,000 Gold Cup at Albion Park in Brisbane on February 1, Scintillate the best finisher of the four in third place behind Valpolicella.
“We have some great dogs in the heats, it’s just a shame we didn’t have our good local, Tyson Barton’s Fahey’s Magic in the heats but she had to be scratched from the big race at Gosford last week so she couldn’t compete in our race,” Northfield said.
“It’s great to have Dennis and Ann Barnes bringing Nangar Lucy up for the heats too. She’s a rising star of middle-distance racing, and it will be good to see how she goes having her first start over the 620m here at Casino on Thursday.”
As well as prizemoney for The Richmond final - and The Clarence final - being $25,000 to the winners, a bonus of $5,000 will additionally paid if the same greyhound wins both new feature races. Heats of The Clarence will be on February 18, with the Final on Sunday, February 25.
While it isn’t the case with this week’s The Richmond event, Grafton’s The Clarence Final will double as the Grafton heat of the Ladbrokes Country Classic with the first four placegetters from The Clarence final qualifying for the Country Classic semi-finals which will be run on March 9 at Dubbo.
The $125,000 final of the Ladbrokes Country Classic in 2024, will be held at Dubbo on Saturday, March 16.
