Tommy's Egg Victory The Pinnacle Of A Glorious Night
By Jeff Collerson
Tommy Shelby became the first Western Australia-trained greyhound in the 31 year history of the race to win the Ladbrokes Golden Easter Egg with a record smashing win over Wow and Baroque Knight at Wentworth Park on Saturday night.
Tommy Shelby led throughout from box eight and covered the 520m in 29.27, .21sec inside the race record established by his sire Fernando Bale in 2015.
Named after the main character in the popular TV series Peaky Blinders, Tommy Shelby was chased all the way by gallant Sydneysider Wow, who went down by one-and-a-half lengths.
Wow received a slight check at the first turn but once Tommy Shelby found the front it was unlikely he was going to be run down.
Baroque Knight, the baby of the field at 25 months of age, ran the race of his life to finish third, just over three lengths behind Wow.
The winner is raced by Steve Withers and his pal Mick Harders, a first time owner.
"When Tommy Shelby was a tiny puppy I gave Mick a half share in him because he has been a great mate of mine for a long while,'' Withers said.
Not a bad gift considering Saturday night's win took Tommy Shelby's earnings to $1,006,585.
Before the race Withers said: "Tommy Shelby has a great record from every box but in races like this, it doesn't matter where your dog is drawn, he can't win if he doesn't nail the start.''
Tommy Shelby did precisely that to take the $250,000 first prizemoney, although Withers remains disappointed his dog had to miss the Perth Cup series.
Because of Sydney's torrential recent rain the Easter Egg series had to be postponed by a week, forcing Tommy Shelby to miss Saturday night's heats of the Perth Cup.
"Although the first prize in the Easter Egg is $100,000 more, it's not so much the money, it is just that I had my heart set on winning the Perth Cup, my home state's biggest race,'' Withers said.
Stanley Road continued to defy poor draws with a remarkable win in Saturday night's other group one race, the 720m Wests Group Association Cup final.
The dog had overcome box eight and box six (three times) to win his previous four races and on Saturday, from another unfavourable draw, box seven, found himself with just one rival behind him with a lap to go.
Stanley Road was still giving pacemaker Fernando Cazz over a dozen lengths' start on the back straight and after still being fifth on the home bend, surged home to beat the early leader by a head.
"He is fun to train and he now knows how to weave in and out of the field while early in his career he tended to stick to the rails,'' trainer Mark Gatt said.
Owner Eddie Kingswell said: "Stanley Road was always going to be good, he broke in sensationally and his first couple of trials before he ever raced, were absolutely brilliant.''
FORBES trainer Jack Smith took out the 2019 group 3 New Sensation with the great Feral Franky and on Saturday night landed the same event with his latest star Jungle Deuce.
Badly drawn in box eight, Jungle Deuce began better than usual and found the rails in second position entering the catching pen.
He overtook pacemaker Louis Rumble leaving the back straight to win by four lengths, clocking a sensational 29.31.
Those figures were not only far quicker than Feral Franky's time of 29.87, but eclipsed the race record set by Victorian crackerjack Hooksy, who recorded 29.36 in 2014.
After the race Smith said: "Jungle Deuce will now tackle the heats of the group 3 Bob Payne Sprint at WP on May 1, and after that series he will head to Dubbo for the heats of the $40,000 Brother Fox Cup on May 22.
Jungle Deuce's part-owner Clay Mawson said: "It seems our dog is in good company as he is following in the footsteps of Feral Franky.''
Steve Kavanagh, trainer of runner-up Louis Rumble, lamented: "My dog clocked a quick first split of 5.40 and covered the 520m in a bit over a very fast 29.60 yet still got beaten!
