New Wagga 320m track record holder Talakai heads toward Thunderbolt finals
The Wayne and Sharron Wilmott-trained Talakai has made a bold claim for the 2023 The Thunderbolt title, winning his Wagga heat in a new track record time of 17.94.
The runs shaves 0.01 of the previous 320m Wagga track record held by She's A Pearl.
Talakai, who is by El Grand Senor out of 2017 Group 2 Bogie Leigh Futurity runner-up Spare Cash, is owned and trained by the Wilmott's, after having acquired him from breeder Toby Weekes at 14 months-of-age.
Talakai's previous start had seen the Temora-based greyhound venture to Wentworth Park for a 280m free-for-all race that resulted in a fourth placing.
But prior to that run, the 35kg black dog had been putting pickets on the fence, winning three races in a row, all in best-of-the-night times at Wagga over the 320m.
Starting on Friday night in the final of three heats of the Wagga Thunderbolt heats, Talakai was backed in to -526.32 favourite with greyhound bookmakers, and gave punters no cause for concern in running.
Beginning quickly from box one, Talakai only ever increased the margin between himself and the rest of the field, winning by 5.25 lengths in the new track record time of 17.94.
Wagga Thunderbolt Heat 3 (320m) – Talakai (17.94, New Track Record) T: Wayne Wilmott
Talakai has now had 27 starts for nine wins and seven placings, earning $19,950 for the Wilmott's.
That career prizemoney tally could explode quickly if Talakai were to be successful in the $75,000 to-the-winner The Thunderbolt final at Grafton on June 24.
Talakai will now contest The Thunderbolt semi-finals at Grafton on June 18 over 350m, and the Wilmott's are prepared to go the extra distance to prepare Talakai for the race.
“Ideally we would prefer to give Talakai two trials at Grafton before the Thunderbolt semis but there won't be time for that, so hopefully one look at the track will put the dog in with a chance,” said Sharon Wilmott.
The Thunderbolt heats continue tonight at Bulli and Gosford, with further heats scheduled for this week at Taree, Goulburn, Richmond, Dubbo, and Grafton.
Four greyhounds will progress from each track series to the semi-finals.
Greyhounds that qualified through the Wagga heats on Friday are Loretta Bale, Seely's Queen, Preston Lee, and Talakai.
The Thunderbolt is another of those ‘pop-up' race that flourished under the formerly Tony Mestrov-led Greyhound Racing New South Wales (GRNSW) administration.
Despite having no black-type race status, the race series carries more than $200,000 in prizemoney for the short course greyhounds.
The inaugural 2022 winner Integrity Mate was only recently retired after suffering an injury preparing for this year's race series.