Great Chase Final Up And Away For Scope Manifold Heights
The Graeme Bate-trained Up And Away ($4.20) continued the outstanding start to her career with an all-the-way victory in the Group 2 Great Chase over 525 metres in front of a large crowd at The Meadows on Wednesday afternoon.
The daughter of Where's Pedro and On Shore began beautifully off box two, recording fast splits of 5.04 and17.84 before holding off the fast-finishing Lektra Jay ($8.10) by a neck to score in 30.17.
Reserve Kirrabilli Kruise ($38.50)(box four) who gained a start after the scratching of Compacto – finished three lengths further back in third.
It was Up AndAway's sixth win from just 10 career starts, pushing her prizemoney to over $38,000 after scoring in the $25,000-to-the-winner final.
Community group Scope Manifold Heights also benefited from the fawn chaser's victory, collecting $5000and the equivalent of 10 per cent of their greyhound's prizemoney winnings for the next 12 months (courtesy of Greyhound Racing Victoria) after being matched with Up And Away at the start of the series.
SportsFacilitators For All in Ocean Grove won $2000 after being paired with Lektra Jay, while south-western community group MPower earned $1000 for KirrabilliKruise's third-placed effort.
Now in its eighth year, the annual Great Chase runs each November and involves the random partnering of competing greyhounds with 150 Victorian groups that care for the intellectually and physically disabled.
More than $30,000 in prizemoney has been shared among 33 of the organisations as a result of being matched to greyhounds that did well through the 2010 series.
Scope Manifold Heights, which is a day care centre for adults with disabilities, received a total of $6,500 as a result of Up AndAway's success throughout the three-week series.
The organisation will also receive the equivalent of 10% of the Graeme Bate-trained Lara sprinter's prize money for the next 12 months, courtesy of Greyhound Racing Victoria.
“This is very overwhelming. We've brought along five clients from Scope Manifold Heights today and they've had a ball”, said Morgan Helmling, a carer at Scope Manifold Heights.
“We can't thank Greyhound Racing Victoria and Great Chase major sponsor Tabcorp enough. This money will most likely be used to improve the facilities for our clients”, she added.
Incidentally, Ocean Grove-organisation Sports Facilitators For All won $2,000 for being matched to Grand Final runner-up Lektra Jay [trained by Anakie's Andrea Dailly], while Warrnambool group Mpower collected $1,000 for their partnering with the third placed Kirabilli Kruise [trained by Warrnambool's Ray Drew].
Deputy Premier and Minister for Racing, Rob Hulls was on hand at the Great Chase Grand Final to present Scope [Bendigo] with a cheque for $10,000.
Scope [Bendigo] was matched to 2009 Great Chase Grand Final winner Sheoak Ian, and as such were entitled to the equivalent of 10% of their greyhound's prize money for the next 12 months.
Unfortunately, the injury prone Sheoak Ian could only manage $1,700 for Scope in the 12 months since earning the group $6,500 in last year's Great Chase, as he spent an extended period on the sidelines this year.
However, a recent rule introduced by GRV's Board states that the organisation matched to the Great Chase Grand Final winner must earn a minimum $10,000 on top of money won throughout the Great Chase series, with GRV making up any shortfall.
After the placed runners the field finished in the following order 4th Swanky Lee ($3.00), 5th Paragon Buster ($4.40), 6th Total Rebellion ($9.80) 7th Chief Bambury ($15.10) and Loaded Missile ($16.20).
Up And Awayis raced by the Ann Sinnott andtrained by Graeme Bate at Lara he is a Fawn dog whelped May 2009 by Where's Pedro from On Shore (Waterview Star x Bally Kay). Up And Away has won six of his 10 starts and with the $25,000 first prize for the Great Chase it took his current stake earnings to $37,175.
The GRV decided on a complete change to the Provincial Cup series in February 2003. Called the Great Chase, heats were held at every provincial and country track with qualifiers competing in semi-finals and a rich final at Bendigo. Designed to take greyhound racing to the ‘man in the street' finalists were aligned with community groups who signed up to be part of the series and become involved with a dog that made the final. The Great Chase is a fantastic regional event providing the integration of involvement with local communities (ie.community groups supporting people with physical and intellectual disabilities), a partnership with Vic Health and top quality greyhound racing.
Brumby Lad won the inaugural $40,000 to winner event and in doing so provided excited members of the Pennyweight Park Centre Ballarat funds to the tune of $3250 plus a GRV-funded 10% of Brumby Lad's earnings from June 1, 2003 to April 30, 2004. The final has been staged at different Country tracks since and raised thousands of needed dollars for many worthy groups that have participated over the six years the event has been staged. Two years ago the event underwent some changes with the final being staged at a city venue for the first time. That format has continued in 2010 with the event again staged at the Meadows. Listed below are the talented previous winners and the tracks they won the event on.
2003 Brumby Lad (Bendigo 24.38), 2004 Our Barney (Warragul 23.84) and 2005 Semaphore(Warrnambool 25.44) 2006 Slater (Shepparton 24.82) 2007 Wot Price Harold (Meadows 30.32) 2008 Pharoah King (Meadows 30.31) and 2009 Sheoak Ian (Bendigo 30.05).