Big Weekend Looms For Hunter Valley Greyhounds
This long weekend is looming as a big pay day for greyhounds owned and trained from in and around Newcastle and the Hunter Valley region.
Master Lochinvar trainer Ken Cheetham will line up second favourite, New Divide from box one in the Group two Peter Mosman on Saturday night worth $25,000 to the winner, he also has his reigning NSW Greyhound of the Year, Take The Kitty in a heat of the Group Two Border Park Galaxy at Tweed Heads earlier in the day.
Cheetham will be looking for his second Mosman title, after his outstanding chaser How’s The Fort was victorious almost 20 years ago in 1992. New Divide, along with race favourite, That’s Just Me (box 2), go into the final unbeaten in the series.
Veteran trainer John Miles, who is based at Killcare on the Central Coast also has a ‘live’ chance in the Mosman with Super Laurie, which has won five of his past seven starts, including two at Wentworth Park, drawn box six.
The Border Park Galaxy is one of the real highlights on the NSW chasing calendar and this year has drawn its strongest list of competitors in years. It’s not only a rich country feature, but is fairly unique with all eight heat winners on the Saturday progressing through to a $25,000 to the winner on Monday afternoon.
Cheetham’s Take The Kitty has run into some stiff opposition at Tweed Heads in his qualifier, taking on Darren McDonald‘s Irish import, King Style, which was a 10 length winner at his only start on Australian soil, and Taipan Bale for another champion Victorian trainer Graeme Bate, which is a multiple Group winner, banking more than $170,000 in prize money and is having his 99th start.
Other greyhounds from the Newcastle area include, Big Bunga for Jason MacKay of Richmond Vale as well as Devine Ruler and Devine Rush for Pat Parrelli of North Rothbury. Reg Kay, the former Queenslander who is now based at Calga on the Central Coast will box one of the pre-post favourites to take out the Final, Elite Blue Size, as well as last start Tweed winner, Seize The Moment.
The Hunter Valley continues to prove it’s one of the strongest areas in Australia for greyhound racing with chasers that have graduated from Maitland and The Gardens winning feature races all over the country.
The area produced the last two NSW Greyhound of the Years, Miagi and Take The Kitty, as well as Miss Elly Mint, a finalist both seasons. The Australian and Victorian Greyhound of the Year, Cindeen Shelby also started her career in Newcastle and returned to win the Group Two Black Top at The Gardens last September.
The Gardens will run a meeting on Saturday night in conjunction with Wentworth Park’s Peter Mosman card, which will be seen on Skyracing2 and you can get bet live in the bumper meeting at The Gardens at Sportsbet or Iasbet, with the first race of the program scheduled to kick off at 6.56pm AEST