Australia's most successful thoroughbred trainer Chris Waller has landed 162 Group One winners, yet most of his staff are planning to head to Wentworth Park on Saturday night to cheer on "their" greyhound Wallacia Mist in the listed Ausure Ultra Sense final.
Wallacia Mist's all-the-way win in a personal best 29.55 was easily the quickest of the nine April 12 Heats and trainer Luke Brown gives her a great chance of taking out Saturday's $25,000 to the winner final, despite her box six draw.
"The greyhound in box five, Betty Birdcage, won her Heat in 30.01 while Camilla Keeping, who has drawn seven and qualified in 29.89, I believe tends to stay wide,'' Brown said.
"Naturally I'm hoping Wallacia Mist can come out running like she did in her Heat, or else sit behind Stop It, who has box one and is very quick early, on the back straight.
"In his Heat I noticed Stop It shifted away from the rail a bit in the home straight so if my bitch is just behind him on the turn she might get a nice run along the fence.''
Win or lose it is going to be a high pressure night for Brown, as around 40 of Chris Waller's staff of 55 have signified their keenness to be at Wentworth Park to support Wallacia Mist.
The well-known connections of Wallacia Mist celebrate after a win.
No wonder, as her syndicate of owners include Waller's foreman, Charlie DUCKWORTH, leading jockey Kathy O'Hara, and another successful trainer of thoroughbreds, Jason Coyle.
Wallacia Mist is the third greyhound Brown has trained for DUCKWORTH, who has a family background with greyhounds.
"My parents had a share in Hardy Admiral, who was runner-up in the 2004 the Waterloo Cup,'' DUCKWORTH said. (Britain's Hunting Act of 2004 sounded the death knell of the Cup, which had been staged since 1836).
"And when I was working with thoroughbreds in England I was based at Lambourn, and in my free time I often enjoyed going to watch the greyhounds racing at nearby SWINDON.
"I met Luke Brown through show-jumping events and when I discovered he was a greyhound trainer I asked him to find me a dog.
"The first greyhound weI raced was Montanna Keeping, who won eight races between 2020 and 2022.
"We intend breeding a litter or two from Montanna Keeping, while our next greyhound Canya Dior, was not so successful, recording just two wins in 2023.''
Wallacia Mist was a miraculous acquisition, because in her first four races, at tracks in Victoria and Queensland, she had not finished closer than fifth.
A friend of Luke Brown's alerted him to Wallacia Mist being offered free to a good home, and because she was a daughter of the top producing bitch Nicki Fields, he decided to take a gamble with her.
"Apparently she had some talent but wasn't chasing properly, but I figured if she never won a race she would be worth breeding from because of her wonderful pedigree,'' Brown said.
"Her first couple of trials for me were nothing flash but she just kept on improving.''
Wallacia Mist's Ultra Sense Heat win was her ninth in 21 starts for Brown, with her Wentworth Park record going into Saturday night's 520m race an imposing three wins from four attempts.
