Gold Coast Cup the likely target for Young Guns winner
STEVE Kavanagh says the heats of the Group 3 Gold Coast Cup (520m) next week are the likely target for his bonny race bitch Joyce Rumble (Cosmic Rumble x Dulcinea Jun '15) after she scored a scintillating victory in the Albion Park Young Guns on Thursday night.
Joyce Rumble started from box one as the $2.60 favourite after a superb 29.87 qualifying win the week before and when the lids flew open she didn't disappoint, spearing straight to the front of the pack and bolting clear to defeat Fab Dooley (Fabregas x Befitting May '15) by three and one quarter lengths in 29.73.
Kavanagh, who also raced Joyce Rumble's Group 1 Golden Easter Egg winning sire, said he was thrilled with Thursday night's victory.
“She went very nice and she just did everything right,” Kavanagh told Australian Racing Greyhound.
“I think the heat run last week gave her plenty of confidence and box one was a big advantage for her.
“When she drew the inside I thought it would just be a case of re-creating her run from the week before which she was able to do and she actually went even better.”
Joyce Rumble has now won nine of her 15 starts and has earned almost $30,000 for Kavanagh who bred the litter from prolific producer Dulcinea (Primo Uno x Hannalore Jan '08).
“I bred the litter myself from Frank Hancock's good brood bitch Dulcinea – it's the first litter by Cosmic Rumble I've bred as a lot of my bitches are closely related to him,” Kavanagh explained.
“Right from the start she has seemed pretty special and Frank has got her brother Sonic Thunder which seems to be a very nice young dog as well.
“It's nice to have success of my own with Cosmic Rumble because he has been a very good sire – it has been a terrific ride for me and a lot of other people who have had success with his pups.”
Kavanagh, who only has a handful of dogs in work, said the Gold Coast Cup will likely be the next goal for Joyce Rumble, with heats to be run and won at Albion Park next Thursday night.
“She'll probably go towards the Gold Coast Cup now, but I am going to make my mind up over the weekend,” he explained.
“She has handled the past couple of weeks well, but I am mindful of pushing her too far too soon, especially as the Lismore Cup is coming up soon and that is her home track where she learnt the ropes of racing – so I don't want to over-race her in the lead up to that series.”
However, Kavanagh is hopeful that further feature race success is on the cards for Joyce Rumble which is starting to mature into a top-class performer after a few injury concerns in recent months.
“She had a few issues which required a fair bit of time off to sort them out. Prior to that she had won seven in a row and she seems to be back to her best now.
“She normally has good early speed but she came out really well in the [Young Guns] final – that's probably the fastest first section I've ever had a dog run at Albion Park.
“I have my fingers crossed that she can do that more often because if she can it won't matter what grade of dogs she is racing against – when you are out in front and running time they find it hard to run you down.”