Blacktop Winner Is Top Of The Penthouse
Last week's Blacktop Final produced one of the true fairy tale stories for owner Seona Hood, claiming her first group victory as a trainer.
It was a case of the good and the bad for her partner Jason Thompson who made the trip up to Betchoice Gardens at Newcastle with Penthouse and Aston Galilee, who was the heavy favourite after a stunning 29.44 debut performance in his heat victory one week prior.
Penthouse pinged when the lids went up but Aston Galilee let out an almighty yelp after his toes were spiked by a fellow runner putting him out the back not even halfway down the straight.
Penthouse held off a late challenge from the flying Fancy Dean to score by 2 lengths in a fast 29.53.
By Run's House out of By Request, both of whom are owned by Seona, there is no bigger satisfaction than breeding, rearing and training a group winner. As tears flowed for Seona after the race, Penthouse put together the perfect performance from the very difficult box five in a final that contained the likes of Fancy Dean and Mr Clydesdale in a handy 29.53.
Run's House (Awesome Assassin x Amy's Sonnet) was a high successful race dog, taking out the 2007 Group One Maturity Classic Final at Sandown Park as well as winning a heat of the 2006 Melbourne Cup, 2nd in the 2007 Group Two Bendigo Cup, 2006 Silver Chief Finalist and 2007 Warrnambool Cup Finalist. He notched up 20 wins and 15 minor placing's from 53 starts giving him an impressive winning strike rate of 38%.
By Request (Lindale Blue x Roshana Reason) comes from the famous Playground line who's offspring are responsible for producing some of Australia's best every broodbitches and racing greyhounds. The most successful is Roxy Reason whose offspring include El Galo and Miss Hot Gossip.
By Request was also a handy race dog claiming the 1999 WA Oaks and finished her career with statistics of 9 wins and 5 minor placing's from just 19 starts.
Penthouse now takes his career statistics to 16 wins and 22 minor placings from 58 starts with a win percentage of 28%, a statistic that is sure to continue to rise given his current run of form.