Palmerston North trainer dominates field

Palmerston North trainer Mike Boyd will line up half the field in the final of the New Zealand Championship Hurdles at the Wairarapa Greyhound Racing Club's meeting at Solway Showgrounds on January 3.
Two heats for the event were staged on the second day of the Wairarapa club's Christmas meeting yesterday and Boyd prepared both winners, Aranuijazz and Prince Zidane as well as two minor placegetters, Gone Troppo and Kotuku Aranaui.
It is the youngest of the quartet, Aranuijazz, who should start favourite for the hurdles
decider. His front running victory yesterday was a carbon copy of his success in the Preview Hurdles at Solway last Wednesday with his slick jumping matching up impressively to his speed on the flat.
Prince Zidane, who is owned by Boyd in partnership with Solway caretaker Dave Amundsen, looked a trifle unlucky when second to Aranuijazz on the Wednesday but showed his class yesterday. He hit the front early in the piece and while current Hurdler of the Year Gone Troppo did his best to bridge the gap he never looked a winning chance.
At the same time, however, it would be unwise to discard Gone Troppo for the final.
The old warrior has had his injury problems of late and the two outings at Solway over the past week would have done him nothing but good.
Apart from the Boyd foursome other greyhounds to make the final of the Championship Hurdles are Our Mick and Miss Cheeky, both trained at Eketahuna by Shayne Gardner, Chippewa Brave and Shaka Malawi.
Another highlight of yesterday's meeting were the two heats of the Gobis series, for which only New Zealand-bred greyhounds are eligible.
Wairarapa club president Owen Marron produced warm favourite Tighnabruich to win the first heat from defending champiomn Cruzmore , Upahut Axion and the fast finishing Dusty Nero.
Tighnabruich camped behind Cruzmore in second place until well down the back straight and when the latter presented him with a rails run he dashed away to score by six lengths.It was still a game run by Cruzmore though as a minor injury meant he went into the race short of a decent gallop.
The second heat was also something of a one-dog affair with Upahut Rose making the most of a smart beginning to grab the lead early in the pice and simply run her rivals off their feet. Her winning margin was in excess of eight lengths.
The other three qualifers for the Janury 3 final from this heat were Waikato visitor Keen Precision, the Marron-trained Scandanavian and Astro Nerone.
Wairarapa-trained winners of minor races on the card were Homebush Chris from James Elers's Pahiatiua kennels and Truant, trained at Masterton by Gary Caffell. The latter's win would have boosted his chances of being the Wairarapa representative in the Inter-Provincial Cup on January 3, a race which is aimed to include greyhounds from Invercargill in the deep south to Auckland in the far north. Considering the inclement weather conditions betting figures for yesterday's meeting were good with $7258 being wagered on course and $310,968 off course.