Fans of the hit American TV drama ‘Yellowstone’ will know leading lady Beth Dutton as the rebellious renegade with a ruthless edge.
But it was her greyhound namesake flexing her muscle on Thursday night as the CHRIS Green-trained sprinter made it two wins on the bounce at Dapto.
“I’m not a Yellowstone fan but my fiancé Teri [Killick] is so she filled me on the whole hype of the show. I won’t lie, I thought it might have been the name of Peter Dutton’s missus…that’s how out of the loop I am,” Green laughed.
“The dog does take on a bit of that personality though, she doesn’t want to wait to be let out, she’s up on her back two feet ready to go on race nights. She’s a real character.”
The kennel recently acquiring Beth Dutton from Allen Williams, along with her equally well named and talented litter brother, Ted Lasso.
“We did question whether we should buy some three-year-old dogs but Allen [Williams] had them both in good condition, they had only been lightly raced and both had been pretty consistently placing in good races at Richmond where there’s a lot of short course depth,” Green added.
“Pete Lagogiane and Jason Magri just keep rolling out fast dogs at Richmond so we thought we’d turn our attention to Dapto. We noticed quite a few free-for-all dogs had dominated those fields for three or four months at a time so we started looking for some greyhounds who could tackle those types of races.”
“We’ve got Spark Ricciardo who goes great at Richmond but we saw a gap in the kennel to find a Dapto dog or two. Beth Dutton is a big bitch, about 28kg…but she can rail, so we thought she’d suit the track and have some success down there.”
The move already paying off with Beth Dutton ripping off two straight wins over the 297m at Dapto in sub-17 second times.
Green now plotting a sustained assault on the South Coast’s most famous track, just a few years after his last Dapto success story.
Beth Dutton has won a tick over $24,000 in prizemoney from 31 starts
“We were part-owners in Sizzle Fly with Andrew Bell and he still holds the first section record at Dapto and was another who dominated down there for months at a time,” Green said.
“Simon Rhodes owned that track for a while, he’d take eight dogs along and bring home at least two or three winners each week. And more recently, Ronnie Alcock has been the same with that litter of his.”
“Dapto seems to be a track not everyone travels to and that might become harder for some now that Wenty Park has moved to Thursday nights. Tommy Rees has been travelling down there lately and has had a lot of success and I guess it’s not a place the Finn’s and Magri’s and Lagogiane’s of the world are tackling every week. That’s not to disrespect trainers at Dapto but it’s a different level of animal.”
Beth Dutton now an 11-time winner after an impressive 16.83 effort (BON) on Thursday.
“It surprised me a bit to be honest. She looked very average out of the boxes and I thought she wasn’t going to get across but she found another gear and took off,” Green said.
“She got up and then I saw the time and thought “if she got the start right, who knows what she could have done.” Winning two from two since coming across is a great start and it’s a good way to introduce new owners into the sport.”
“I have to thank Allen as well though. He’s helped me a fair bit with the transition and he’s been a bit of a mentor over the last couple of months to help her settle in.”
The team now eyeing off a race like the Goulburn Fireball, before turning their attention to a potential Vegas wedding.
“There’s three well known sprint races in NSW at the momet. The Thunderbolt has been and gone, so to has The Cannonball. So we’ll do our homework and see if we can get her ready for the Fireball. We’ll aim her up for that but the Azzopardi’s and Lord’s and Hardman’s of the world will show up for that sort of race and the track won’t suit her as much but we’ll see,” Green said.
“And as for Vegas…it depends how many more wins she has.”