Sidrak getting into a winning Habit with Bulli double

NADIA Sidrak celebrated a career highlight at last night, landing a winning double with talented half-brothers Iona Inferno and Iona Nitro.

Both greyhounds are out of super producer Iona Habit, which was purchased by Sidrak’s brother Frank, with the daughter of Fenceline and Dancing Habit producing 2014 1 Paws of Thunder winner Iona Seven from her 2011 mating to Swift Fancy.

The first leg of Sidrak’s double was in the opening event of the night, with Iona Inferno (x Swift Fancy) leading all the way from box eight to break his maiden status in 26.81, while Iona Nitro (x Tuiaki) had to do plenty of work in the seventh, working his way from the back of the field to claim the lead and score in 27.06.

While ‘Nitro’ and ‘Inferno’ are yet to reach the glorious heights of their big sister, Sidrak says landing the double last week was a tremendous feeling.

“I had all my winning hopes for the night on Iona Inferno in the first race – I thought Iona Nitro was the biggest underdog in his race and all I was worried about was he’d get around safe,” Sidrak told Australian Racing Greyhound.

“Iona Inferno has a lot of ability so I was pretty confident going into his race even though there were some others in the event which were drawn well.

“He has been a really bad box dog in the past, but last Friday he jumped the best he ever has and once he got to the lead I knew he would be hard to run down.

“When Iona Nitro was back second last around the turn I started running back from the boxes thinking it was all over for him, but when I got to him in the pen someone told me he had won.

“I missed everything which happened in the home straight, but when I watched the replay I was so proud of him because he never gave up – I was over the moon.”

Sidrak says she has high hopes for many of the pups from Iona Inferno’s litter, an April 2014 repeat mating to Swift Fancy.

“All of them have shown ability, but they are all a bit hopeless out of the boxes at this stage.

“Most of them are starting to put it together and I think a lot of them have a stack of ability… they just need race experience.

“We are hopeful some of them will reach the heights of the first Swift Fancy litter, but it is too early to tell at this stage and at the moment it is just rewarding to see them make it to the track and win races.”

Sidrak formerly trained at Catherine Field from the same property as Frank and recently made the decision to start training from her own home at Picton. She says she and her brother still remain each other’s number one fans.

“I was training dogs from my parent’s house with my brother Frank, but when I had my kids it got a bit too hard to be travelling back and forth every day.

“I decided to give it a go out of my own back yard and my partner Vaughn is getting into the dogs now too and he helps me out a lot.

“I have six in work and I have a heap of retired dogs so the two boys have made things a bit more luxurious at home for them all for the next few weeks.

“Even though we don’t train from the same property anymore the first phone call that came through on Friday was from Frank – he is one of my biggest supporters.”

Despite living a hectic life as a greyhound trainer and mum to three year old Ciara, 2, and Ella, 7 months, Sidrak says Friday’s success is what makes all the long hours worthwhile.

“We had a couple of months where we had nothing but bad luck with one breaking its hock, another breaking its wrist and a couple of girls out on season.

“Friday night really lifted our spirits back up and reminded us why we are doing what we are…it has definitely given us that boost to keep doing what we’re doing.”

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