Langton and Britton quinella 2017 Group 3 SA Oaks
HOO Gur Affair (Barcia Bale x Gold Affair Two Dec '15) justified her short-priced favouritism when capturing a sensational victory in Thursday's Group 3 SA Oaks (515m) at Angle Park.
Trained in Victoria by Angela Langton, Hoo Gur Affair showed brilliant early dash off box four, rolling straight to the lead after which she was never headed, defeating Paradiso Lass (My Bro Fabio x Key To Eden Sep '15) – which is trained by Langton's partner Jeff Britton – in a fast 29.86.
Langton said she was rapt with the win, with Hoo Gur Affair benefiting from a look at track prior to the series which the Anakie mentor believed assisted on Thursday night.
“It didn't surprise me how easily she won – she has won in 30.01 at The Meadows so she has got a fair bit of ability and she has got good early speed,” Langton told Australian Racing Greyhound.
“It has been a plan to go for the Oaks for a while now – we took her and a few of the others over there last month to give them a look at the track.
“We've raced in this series quite a bit and we've found over the past couple of years that it can be a bit of a tricky track because the boxes are different and they are a fair way off the track.
“Having that run there last month definitely helped – she seemed to improve for her second and third time around there so it definitely paid off.”
Hoo Gur Affair is owned by Martin Hanke who also raced her dam Gold Affair Two (Texas Gold x Olgers Affair Mar '10) which was trained by Langton's brother-in-law Rob Britton and won 20 races and over $126,000.
Hoo Gur Affair is from her dam's second and final litter, with the black bitch sadly passing away in March 2016.
Whilst she still has a fair way to go to emulate the feats of her mother, Hoo Gur Affair is doing everything right at this stage, having now won five of her nine starts and almost $40,000.
Langton says the red fawn speedster has a bright future on the race track, with the target for her now likely to be the Group 3 Great Chase series next month.
“She is learning all the time and while she is still pretty inexperienced I think having that early speed is going to help her win a lot of races,” she said.
“We'll see what's coming up, but the Great Chase is on soon which is for dogs with 1-5 wins so we might keep her for that.
“That series would probably really suit her because she goes good around The Meadows and she has got a bit of experience now – so it might pay to just hold her back for a couple of weeks and have a go at it.”
Langton and Britton didn't have too much luck in the SA Derby on Thursday, with $1.40 favourite Mepunga Blazer (Barcia Bale x Mepunga Nicky Jun '15) missing the kick off box seven.
From there the black greyhound was always going to find it tough, but he ran an enormous race to finish third behind WA duo Black Bombshell (Barcia Bale x Tearsabout Tears Aug '15) and Bundles Galore (Dyna Nalin x Saving Bundles Jul '15).
Langton said Mepunga Blazer lost no admirers with his effort and has pulled up well following the feature.
“It was a good run. He is a super dog, but unfortunately he was drawn on the wrong side of the track – he doesn't have much luck with box draws,” she said.
“He isn't always the best beginner which we saw in the final – but the good thing about him is that he always gives 100 per cent no matter where he is so we were very happy with his run.
“Had he drawn on the inside it might have been a different story, but we are still very proud of him and we know there is a lot more in store for him down the track.”