Can Bruton Miss cause an upset in Townsville Cup?
ROBERT Lound says it would be a ‘dream come true' if his consistent greyhound Bruton Miss is able to upset the Brisbane invaders to secure a home-town triumph in the Group 3 Townsville Cup (498m) on Tuesday night.
Bruton Miss (Bit Chili x Surf On Tap Jan '14), a winner of 15 from 59, resumed from close to two months on the sidelines in her heat last week, leading for the majority of the race before being tackled by Kulu Jasper (Cosmic Rumble x Kulu Mystery Jul ‘15) in the shadows of the post to finish one length second.
Lound says it is a big thrill just to make the $25,000 to the winner final, the flagship event of the year at the Townsville track.
“These finals are hard to make let alone win,” Lound told Australian Racing Greyhound.
“The good Brisbane dogs normally come up for it now that the prize money is good, but it's the one race we look forward to each year so it is nice to have a dog make it through.”
Based at Jensen, Lound, who ran second in last year's final with Rocket's Magic, says his chaser is ideally drawn in box three and expects her to run a bold race with a run under her belt since resuming from a break.
“I am very happy with the draw and I am hoping she can run a race. She has a lot of early speed – she pings the lids,” he said.
“She hasn't raced for a couple of months because she is top grade and I've been struggling to get a run with her – but I had been keeping her fit by trialling her and putting her up my straight track.”
Lound knows she faces a tough challenge up against Tony Brett's star trio Opal Nera (Dyna Tron x Black Sambuca May '15), Split Image (Where's Pedro x Unfinished Jun '14) and Zabdon Ferrari (Magic Sprite x Awesome Knocka May ‘14).
“Obviously Tony Brett is going to be very hard to beat – Zabdon Ferrari won the race last year and broke the track record and Split Image ran 28.41 in her heat last week so it is going to be a very good race,” he said.
“But I was very happy with her heat run – she ran a new personal best and if she can reproduce that run she is in with a chance if there is any trouble.
“She will come out humming again – she is a terrific little box dog and she doesn't do anything wrong in her races.
“If you can lead they have to run you down.”
The Group 3 Townsville Cup is worth $25,000 and is race eight on Tuesday night.
The meeting kicks off at 7.12pm, with the main race scheduled to jump at 9.41pm.