Desert Rampage continues stellar form at Mandurah

was a brilliant winner at on .

DESERT Rampage (Barcia Bale x Desert Spark Feb '15) continued his love affair with the 405m trip at Mandurah with a victory in the $10,525 The Shorts Final on Friday night.

Drawn ideally in box one, Desert Rampage stepped cleanly from the inside and was able to rail through to assume the front spot.

Once on the bunny the -trained greyhound proved far too good, striding clear to defeat Fire Blaze ( x Starlight Delly Mar '14) by six and a half lengths in a best of night 22.56.

Owner Russell Guelfi, who also bred the black dog, was pleased with the win.

“I was pretty confident when he came up with box one – it's a shame he can't get box one every week,” Guelfi told Australian Racing Greyhound.

“It was a really good run on Friday night and it was great to see him get another feature race – he has been a very nice dog for us.”

Desert Rampage took his record to 23 wins and seven placings from 40 starts, his prize money now closing in on $65,000.

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He is one of three greyhounds Guelfi has owned throughout his time in greyhound racing and the WA-based participant considers himself very lucky to have had a fair bit of success over the past five years.

is friends my uncle and god father and when I decided to get into dogs they put me in touch with her.

“Linda and Chris had a litter of pups and gave me the choice to pick one out of four and I picked Desert Spark.

“She was a very handy bitch – she won a 3 race and when she retired I decided to breed a litter with her.

“I picked two pups out of the litter to keep and luckily I chose him because he is the best in the litter.”

Desert Rampage is consistent as they come, the only chink in his armour being his strength over more ground.

“He always looked like being smart. The pre-trainer said he was by far the best out of the litter.

“It's a shame he can't run out a strong 500. He has raced over the 490m at Mandurah and he did make the Mandurah Cup final after he was only just pipped on the post by the eventual winner in his heat.

“But he doesn't quite get the 520 – he walks in the last 20 or 30 metres. Even though he isn't overly strong, Chris and Linda have done a brilliant job with this bloke – he has been racing very well.”

Desert Rampage is likely to target the Mandurah Mail (405m) at the start of next year.