Three different Hunter Valley trainers all headed north on Friday for the heats of the Casino Cup, all with a dog for the same owner, and after each took out their respective events, Victorian owner Ray Borda will have three chances in Next week’s $25,000 to the winner final.
All three were having their first starts at the tight Casino circuit, but none of them had a problem, all impressive winners and bound to be improved for Next Friday’s Cup Final after having a look at the track.
Borda - who has raced many stars with the Aston prefix over the years, including 2017 Melbourne Cup winner Aston Dee Bee - said earlier this year he had more than 700 greyhounds, costing him around $25,000 a week. He will be hoping one of his three runners at Casino can pocket that exact amount Next Friday.
Brandy Hill trainer Mark Davidson was the first to qualify a dog for Borda, with Aston Tatum taking out the first heat in 27.57s. Runner-up Jasper The Jet’s 27.69s was not fast enough to secure a place in the final.
Next to get a Borda dog through was Geoff Grimwood who hails from Martin’s Creek, when the speedy Aston Zodiac clocked the fastest time of the five heats, winning in 27.42s. James Gallaway’s Katana tried hard in second and the 27.57s time was good enough to get through.
Borda then won the fourth heat when Aston Lee powered to the lead up the back and scored in 27.47s from early leader Hello Mavis, whose 27.55s also was swift enough to secure a final berth.
Borda has another runner in the Cup heats, but Aston Tatum’s kennelmate Aston Rapide walked out of the boxes in the final heat and his race was run right there.
That heat went local Phantom Bonnie trained by Mal Ross, another leading throughout, and posting 27.47s in just holding off the fast-finishing Seductive Avatar who posted the fastest time of the second placegetters, 27.50s, and in doing so booked a place in the final.
The other heat was taken out by smart local Kooringa Lucy trained by Mitch Northfield.
Kooringa Lucy (pictured) won the heat and final of the Casino Regional TAB Million Dollar Chase series back in September, then went to town and won at Wentworth Park before finishing fourth behind Shadow Mist in the semi-finals of the world’s richest greyhound race.
Registering her 13th win from 31 starts, Kooringa Lucy clocked 27.52s, overcoming an early check to surge to the lead up the back and race away to score easily from Mackay’s Cursed, whose time of 27,87s was not fast enough to snatch a finals’ berth.
