Early in her career Redeem Our Cash seemed destined to be purely a short course greyhound but last Saturday night she won her fourth successive Wentworth Park 520m event taking her record over that trip at headquarters to six wins and five placings from 14 starts.
Allan Ivers, who trains Redeem Our Cash for Queenslander Adam Powell, bought the greyhound for just $1200 after she had been educated.
"Obviously she did not break in anything flash to get her for that sort of money but I liked her breeding because her dam Spare Cash was a very smart race bitch and I believed she could be handy,'' Ivers said.
"After she had won five sprint races I gave her a 515m test at Gosford but she tailed the field so I thought she might just be a 400m bitch.
"But when I took her to Wenty she took to the place immediately and has continued to adapt to that track.
"Redeem Our Cash is a dream to train because she pulls up 100 per cent sound in every respect after each race, although she does find the line better when she is able to get on the lure and make the pace.
"I have won four 520m fifth grades with her at WP Wednesday night meetings and two in that grade there on Saturday nights.
"I plan to nominate her for Wenty again on Saturday.''
Sally's Reward has clocked 29.92 and 30.00 in her two wins from two starts at Wentworth Park but her dam Bella Can Do, whose best WP time was 30.27, remains owner Mary Spiteri's favourite greyhound.
Bella Can Do, the dam of Sally's Reward, had four WP victories among her 14 wins from 91 starts but the now eight year old brood bitch holds a special place in Spiteri's heart.
"Bella Can Do, whose kennel name is Sally, is the most special greyhound we have had in more than four decades in the sport,'' Mary Spiteri said.
"People laugh when I tell them, but Bella Can Do understands every word I say to her, we have not had a more intelligent greyhound with a beautiful temperament to match.''
Spiteri and husband Vince bred Sally's Reward from their bitch Bella Can Do, who was a daughter of another of their greyhounds, Smart Bond.
And it doesn't stop there, as Smart Bond was produced by their bitch Smart Assassin, who was whelped by Donington Reward, another of the Spiteri family's greyhounds.
Thus Sally's Reward is a fifth generation Spiteri-bred bitch, and as owner-trainers winning city races with greyhounds they have raced for several generations is far from unusual, it makes the sport unique among the three racing codes.
Manila Sunrise won 10 of his 22 races at Nowra last year while his trainer Frances Goodwin was also named the Pine Bowl's top trainer of 2021.
Last year Goodwin also prepared Typhoon Tim, who set a Nowra 365m record of 20.23 when he won on August 9.
Mighty midget Encouraging, who races regularly at a minuscule 22kg, had 12 wins and a dozen placings at LADBROKES GARDENS in 2021 for trainer Bryan Young.
