Hooked reels in big one

HOOKED ON SCOTCH confirmed his status as Australia’s most promising young greyhound when he blitzed a star-studded line-up to win the Group 1 Hobart Thousand over 461 metres at Elwick last night

The Jason Thompsontrained dog began brilliantly from box two to share the lead with Atley Quick (1) but when Hooked on Scotch slipped into overdrive he forged clear and went on to defeat Atley Quick by almost six lengths, with Leica Prayer almost two lengths astern.

Hooked on Scotch stopped the clock at 25.49 to be only five one-hundredths of a second outside the track record (25.44).

Thompson was thrilled with the victory and said the Hobart Thousand was a race he had longed to win.

Hooked on Scotch has only just turned two, but has already won multiple Group events.

Hooked on Scotch’s managing owner Darren Pulelo said there are no immediate plans to send the dog to stud but instead connections are looking at other Group events around the country.

“We are looking at mapping out a program for him in the coming weeks as we’ve got races such as the Paws of Thunder in NSW and the Cranbourne Cup to consider and we are looking forward to getting the dog back to The Meadows,” Pulelo said.

BE LIKE BILL made up for missing out on a berth in the Hobart Thousand final by scoring an emphatic win in the Thousand Consolation (Bob Brown Memorial).

The Blake Pursell-trained dog was a finalist in last year’s

Hobart Thousand but had no luck in this year’s edition when fifth to Stop Line but winning the Bob Brown Memorial helped ease the pain.

Be Like Bill flew the lids from box two and once on the lure the end result was never in doubt.

THE inaugural running of the Denise Fysh Memorial was taken out by outsider Bobby Lava ($16) from the Blake

Pursell kennel. It was a fitting result as Fysh, who passed away early this year after a long battle with cancer, was a big fan of outsiders winning special races. She was also a great advocate of promoting young trainers coming through the ranks and Pursell fits that bill.

Bobby Lava had scored an impressive win at his previous outing and he had to win by overpowering Speedy Denholme,

which has placed in a heat of the Hobart Thousand and ran fourth in the Group 3 Devonport Chase (formerly Devonport Cup) at his previous outing.

Speedy Denholme led and looked the winner at the top of the home straight but Pursell’s young dog refused to wilt and in the end forged to the lead close to home and defeated the favourite comfortably.