Just a day after notching up his 44th birthday, trainer James Porter has even more reason to celebrate after claiming a quintet of wins up the Richmond Straight.
It's the first time this year a NSW trainer has prepared five winners at one meeting, with Porter cheekily proclaiming “it should have been more” after four of his runners also ran into a placing.
“I’ve never had six so I would have liked to have pinched one more,” Porter said.
“But today was a good day and we had a bit of luck. We’ve taken 10 or 12 dogs down to Richmond some weeks and had six seconds and a few thirds and you think you should have taken a few out.”
“Then you have days like today when the inside dogs go in and the outside dogs go out and they all get a crack at it. We’ve had five winners a few times, but we’ll get six eventually.”
Colombo, Cape Canaveral, Mitch and Murray, Ready To Wiggle and Wiggle With It were all victorious in their respective races, with Straight Out, Gambino, World Gone Mad and Pinch Point also finding the frame.
The ‘fiver’ a perfect launching pad for the remainder of the year after Porter described 2023 as a “Rough run”.
“We thought we were in for a good year last year and set ourselves a target of 100 winners (Porter had 74 winners in 2023) but we had some injuries, some dogs finished up and I was busy with work so I couldn’t spend as much time around the kennels as I wanted to,” Porter added.
“But I changed occupations late in the year which gave me more time to be around and help out Sharee [Porter’s fiancé and the kennel’s handler] and we’ve had a better run since.”
“Sharee likes going to the track and I prefer being at home with the dogs so that’s worked well and we’ve got seven kids living with us so it’s easier if we split our time up that way. We used to love getting down to the track together but unfortunately those days are few and far between now.”
Interestingly, Porter was most bullish about a runner that did not salute today, with Gambino (second behind reigning NSW National Straight Final winner Oscar Moses) singled out for the most praise.
“I’ve liked him since he was a puppy, he’s only just turned two, he’s only been unplaced once in 14 starts and he’s alReady racing the likes of Oscar Moses, Oranmore and Clint Keeping, he’s a very fast dog” he said.
“And he was a bit unlucky today. The favourite had a spare box inside and out and had a good run but Gambino had the six leaning all over him for 50m or so. It’s time for him to start racing on the circle again but the Richmond Straight Track Championship is coming up and he deserves a crack at that.”
“He’s a few lengths off the best straight track dogs but I think he’s got a lot of upside and will be a very good dog. The only issue is he gets ‘sooked up’ by Sharee something terrible which doesn’t help.”
The Greta-based trainer also keen to shine the spotlight on grand old stager Mitch And Murray who racked up win 27 in his 96th start at Richmond.
“He’s never raced anywhere else in his life, and I know there’s faster dogs but he’ll hit 100 starts up the straight soon and I’d love the club to recognise what is a pretty good achievement,” Porter said.
“People probably don’t know he hurt his hip as a youngster and can’t go around circle tracks so we’ve kept him up the straight his whole career. He’ll be the first dog to have 100 runs up the straight and he’s my old favourite.”
“A dog like Shall Not will almost certainly overtake him, but at the moment, he’s won more races on the track than any other greyhound. And he’s just gone into Masters grade so I’m hoping he can pinch a few more and give Shall Not something to chase."
