The Queen Takes Her Crown
Last night's Group 2 Bogie Leigh Queensland Futurity Final saw the true emergence of Australian greyhound racing's next “Queen Of The Track”.
Following on from a slashing 29.72 heat, win in which she became the fourth fastest winner ever around Albion Park; Queen Lauryn (Token Prince ~ Cheeky Sprite) began poorly from her 5 box and had to work hard early to hold her position.
Just before the winning post the first time she got shuffled back a little and hard to chase hard between and under dogs to get to third down the back, but a long way from early leader Tricode Flojo (Brett Lee ~ Hitech Star) and Que Sera Sera (Big Daddy Cool ~ Dash Of Burgundy), who looked perfectly positioned at the leaders heels. At this point of the race Queen Lauryn was still many lengths behind and trying to accelerate after the leading pair.
Up front, Que Sera Sera had made a meal of going around Tricode Flojo and run about 3-4 dogs wide of the fence. Tricode Flojo was chasing resolutely in front and unfazed or unaware of what was coming behind her.
Undaunted by the huge margin she needed to make up, Queen Lauryn began to unleash one of the best “come from behind” performances seen in recent times. The black bitch simply onloaded on the Albion Park loam surface and by the time they had reached the 520m boxes again she had reached Que Sera Sera and was tenaciously after the leader.
Still some lengths ahead in the short straight, Tricode Flojo looked to have it won, but Queen Lauryn hadn't peaked on her run and was taking ground off her on every stride and still increasing her speed. In fact she was now going so quick that she caught both herself and Tricode Flojo unawares and ran right in to the back of the leader, stalling all the momentum she had built up.
Showing her inexperience at this stage of the race, the 29kg veteran of only 7 starts prior to last night, then over corrected in an attempt to avoid the leader and lost back all the ground she'd made in the straight. At this point in the run she looked “gone for all money”, but amazingly managed to balance up again and then make yet another run to swamp Tricode Flojo by 1 length in what was left of the run to the line. Even more amazingly, the winning time was a good 30.01, which was testament to the fact that Tricode Flojo left nothing on the track and Queen Lauryn……well,……she was, and is, simply brilliant!!
Queen Lauryn is owned by 4Tab and Sky Channel race caller Steve Hawkins and his family (pictured) and named after one of his daughters.
In the good hands of Tony Brett, and trained for her first win by Garry Geary; she has now faced the starter 8 times for the immaculate record of 8 wins, which now includes a Group 2 win and total prizemoney of $32,820.
Her previous wins were 29.72 Albion Park, 29.82 Albion Park, 30.22 Wentworth Park, 30.17 Wentworth Park, 30.27 Albion Park, 30.70 Ipswich and 30.67 at Lismore; and a combined winning margin of 55 1/4 lengths.
Of course among her wins was a good 30.22 Group 1 Vic Peters Memorial Semi Final win at Wentworth Park in October 2007. Not long after that run she came on season and had to be scratched from the final when a pre-post favourite.
Adding more merit to last night's performance, her last three wins are all coming off the back of that an enforced “seasonal” break of nearly 5 months spelling.
[…] boxes and headed for the judge. Queen Lauryn was finishing as well as she did when she took out the Group 2 Futurity Final at Albion Park earlier this year, but just as she looked like she was going to swamp Miss Beeslee; […]