A regular Friday evening Hatrick institution is no longer following yesterday's return to Sydney of the resilient sprinter Sir Duggie.
Sir Duggie was a sprinting phenomenon, however age and injury finally caught up with the Lisa Cole prepared sharp sprinter when winning his last 305m dash on August 14.
"Duggieloved his racing, he was an inspiration around the kennels. Greyhounds like him are a dream to have. He continued to bounce back to race at the top-level following injuries.
"His latest injury was to a wrist and at five and a half years it was time to retire him. He's flying back to his Sydney owner Gordan Sherri to live on the couch," advised Brendon Cole about the sprinter who contested 158 races, winning 63 of them, placing in another 42 and earning $124,740 in stakes.
And that brings us to this evening's open class 305m sprint (race 5) where the Cole-prepared Big Time Jonnie can overcome his poor five trap draw. He can be forgiven for his miss last Friday when after being checked he had an unplanned altercation with the rail.
Kennelmate Allegro Fern secures the draw advantage from the ace trap. She can capitalise on that opportunity as can Big Time Billie, who races from the adjacent two trap. Big Time Fairy is presented with swooping claims from her eight-trap draw.
Cole absolutely dominated last week's $45,000 New Zealand Oaks final at the Addington Raceway where the kennel incredibly qualified all eight finalists for the Group 1 520m event.
Big Time Elsa stylishly won the race and she makes her return to Hatrick this evening where she'll start as the warm favourite for the open class 520m race (race 9).
She won the NZ Oaks from the three trap and she will load away into the same trap here. Three other NZ Oaks finalists are lining up including runner-up Big Time Brie who was gunned down in the final bound by her kennelmate when yielding by a head margin.
Bigtime Daisy, who was luckless in the NZ Oaks, has drawn to create her own racing luck from the one trap, while the claims held by Big Time Maple can never be lightly dismissed.
Big Time Pluto upset in last Friday's version of this 520m race when delivering her 30.31s win. Her task this evening is a fair bit tougher with the return of the NZ Oaks girls.
