George, Smith triumph
Garry George and Cliff Smith were the only ‘locals’ to lead in victors last week in what turned out to be an ‘almost’ week for a number of regional dogs filling the minor placings over the course of the twelve-race program at Horsham.
Wonwondah’s Pat and Cliff Smith have channelled their inner Justin Longmuir in a bid to match the Fremantle coach’s achievement with his young Dockers side.
The Dockers have won their last six games in impressive fashion, but it’s West Song for the Smiths that has won her past five starts in impressive fashion and will aim to equal the run of the Dockers at Warrnambool and make it six on the bounce.
Dominant at Horsham on Tuesday last week, West Song was in a race of her own winning by the best part of five lengths in a fast 23:23sec in Free for All company, improving her overall record to 10 wins and 19 minor placings from 54 career starts.
Nitro Antwon for Beulah’s Garry George was the only other local winner for the night, running down early leader Rockstar Ohlmus in a gutsy hard-fought win.
Nitro Antwon is a great story, suffering a non-racing injury late in 2021 requiring a twomonth break and George had to replace racing with intensive rehabilitation.
He returned to the racetrack in January and won first-up at Warrnambool. Since returning Antwon has started 15 times, winning four and filling the minors on a further four occasions.
The ‘almost’ brigade of local dogs on the night that flew the flag for their respective kennels filling minor placings was made up of six greyhounds and with an ounce of luck here and there the local winners on the program would have ballooned to a very impressive number.
Andrea Gurry, Nhill, finished with two seconds and a third with Mt. Elgin Lass, Blazing Beast and Kempton Bale, Ian Bibby, Warracknabeal, two seconds with Crymelon Libby and Crymelon Comet and Garry George added to his earlier win with a third placing over the 485-metre journey with Got My Star.
George then hit the road on Wednesday and headed for Bendigo with Rather and Bullying, both dogs were sent to the boxes as favourites but Rather had no luck finding trouble and finishing toward the tail of the field.
Bullying was a different story, after missing the start to be near last early he weaved through traffic to find the fence and when the gap opened just before the corner, he went from third to four lengths in front within the space of 75 metres and won with a leg in the air in the best of the night time of 24:03sec for the 424m trip.
The remainder of May will see normal Tuesday race programming, but GRV has advised of some extra meetings for June with day meetings on Thursday, June 2 and Monday, June 6 to go with some Saturday morning meetings programmed for August and September.