Janderra Line Well Represented In Lesley Ann Leonard Memorial
By Peter Davis
First run in 1988 over 313m, the Lesley Ann Leonard Memorial celebrates the life of a Dubbo teenager whose dad Les has been deeply engaged with the club since inception.
Lesley-Ann, aged 17, after falling from a motorbike when a pillion passenger, died on her birthday on November 30, 1987.
Five heats of the 400m series, offering $6000 to the winner (plus a Ladbrokes Red Dog Bonus) on October 23 will be decided at Dawson Park on Saturday and, while restricted to greyhounds with up to three wins, there will be fierce competition.
Janderra secured the series decider in 2000 for Paul and Pam Braddon and they have continued the line with great success. In fact, Carla’s Magic – a great grand-daughter of Janderra - steps out in the night’s top grade sprint (Race 10) on the 12-event card.
While Pam Braddon has just Carla’s Magic drawn, husband Paul will be represented by Swift Justice, Shelly Swift and Unlock The Fury in heats one, two and three (respectively) of the Memorial and, later in the night, Rich History and Rapid Hill Billy clash in Race Nine over 318m.
Of the six Braddon-trained aspirants, only Rich History does not have Janderra represented in his pedigree.
Charmaine Roberts, a five-time winner of the series, has runners in three of the five heats while debutants Jumpy Keeping and Pauline Keeping act as reserves.
An interesting runner in the Memorial heats is Spring Meteor. The Spring Hill-prepared son of Fernando Bale overcame a slow start from box three to win – on debut – at Goulburn on October 8.
His time (20.22) was far from remarkable yet the effort of the 18 month-old sapling was eye-catching. Saturday’s heat will be only start two but he has the advantage of box one and will have taken great benefit from his first day at the races.
The lids fly on the first race at Dubbo at 5.53pm.
