She’s A Pearl back at Wentworth Park aiming for 13 in a row
Usually, a horse or greyhound gets a spell as a reward for the effort they've put in over their preparation.
But not She's A Pearl – she's just different.
The superstar bitch will line up in the $10,500 GBOTA Chairman's Stake May 28 over 520m at Wentworth Park on Saturday night – just two weeks after her incredible Million Dollar Chase triumph.
Kennel foreman Andy Lord, husband of trainer Jodie Lord, said the gifted sprinter was actually at risk of being injured if they gave her a one-month break, as originally planned.
After the two-year-old scorched the Million Dollar Chase field to win in a breathtaking 29.32 seconds on May 7, all she wanted to do was keep racing.
“Two weeks was probably too long,” Lord told AustralianRacingGreyhound.com, with She's A Pearl to go after her 13th consecutive win on Saturday night.
“You don't want them chewing the kennel and breaking a tooth or being stupid.
“So at the end of the day if they want to race let them race.”
Million Dollar Chase Final (520m) | Wentworth Park | May 7, 2022 | She's A Pearl (1st)
She's A Pearl has such a will-to-win mentality that she gets upset when she sees her kennelmates running on the Lords' property at Gunning.
“She just gets a bit over the top at home. If she's going racing she's fine, but if she starts to see the other dogs running and it's a bit longer than a week she starts to think ‘hang on a minute – I'm not running',” Lord said.
“She tries to drag you to the van, so you know then that she just wants to go racing.”
You could say that She's A Pearl's only weakness is she struggles to handle the moments she is not racing.
“You get others. I've got another bitch, Coast Model, who's very similar,” Lord said.
“Bandit Ned is another one who will try to drag you straight to the van. And he's had a couple of months off, but he's handled it a bit better than her.
“Nothing much changes with her. She only wants to do one thing.
“I think even after the day you race she'd line up again if she wanted to.”
It goes without saying, She's A Pearl is expected to win again and comfortably on Saturday night.
If she does, she'll be just one victory away from overtaking Fanta Bale's world-record tally of $1.365 million in prizemoney.
Lord said having the superstar bitch in his kennel was like striking gold.
“They're hard to get – I've never had one like her, and I've been in greyhounds for a long time,” he said.
“I've had some good ones and I've had ones equally as fast as her, but not the same habits.
“She's almost foolproof. I think it's just like winning the lottery getting a bitch like her.”
There is plenty on the horizon for She's A Pearl in the months to come.
First, she'll run in the national championships at Wentworth Park, followed by another Million Dollar Chase, back in its usual September slot after it did not go ahead due to Covid last year.
“She'll go to the nationals and then the next MDC,” Lord said.
“It's probably the next-hardest race to win. I think the hardest races to win in the country would be the (Million Dollar Chase), Golden Easter Egg, Melbourne Cup and then the nationals.
“The nationals are at Wentworth Park this year, but the year I won it with In For Life (in 2004) we won our heat at Wentworth Park and then we had to travel to Perth.
“And there you had to meet the best dogs from every state. So it is hard – it's not easy.
“We won it that year, but being on your home track is probably an advantage.”
Lord also likes three-year-old Panorama in race six at Wentworth Park on Saturday night.
“She'll be hard to beat off the red box,” he said.
“She didn't impress me last start because I backed her and she got run down on the line.
“But she's got a bit of pace and she's a nice bitch.
“She could win a decent race too because she can run and she's very honest.”