Grafton Greyhounds Wreak Havoc at The Gardens
The strength of Greyhound racing on the Northern Rivers cannot have been highlighted any more emphatically than it was on last Saturday (July 31) evening when Northern Echo and Cipollini decimated their opposition at the Newcastle venue.
Northern Echo lined up in heat 2 of the Vera Dolling 400m event from box 2 and the Reg Gardoll started as a $1.70 favourite courtesy of his strong Northern Rivers form. As race caller Tim Newbold declared that he would be very hard to beat if he brought his form to the Gardens and bring it he did!
The talented son of Hallucinate and Silent Melody flew out of the boxes setting up an early 4 length lead and that was as close as they got. Well in in a 5th grade event, Northern Echo widened the margin with every step before recording a devastating 12 3/4 length victory in the flying time of 22.46 seconds.
While it is hard to get a true gauge on the time as the distance has only been in use for a short time it is worth remembering the time is 4/10's of a second quicker than any other and the next fastest on the night was 22.97 seconds while the Top Graders ran 23.11 seconds. I would suggest it will be a time which will take some beating unless "the Echo" can improve on it next start.
Not to be done, Jeff Chapman ventured south with his smart youngster Cipollini having his first look at the track. This was to prove to be no barrier as he made full use of his box 8 draw when angling gradually down to the rails from the 515 metre start. Cipollini led comfortably by the time they reached the first turn and, as was the case with Northern Echo, from that point on he turned the race into a procession before winning by 10 3/4 lengths in the fast time of 29.54 seconds.
Adding merit to the performance was the fact that as previously stated, Cipollini had never been on the track before and indeed it was only the second time the son of Late Late Show and Shireen's Habit has been over a journey of 500 metres or more. This greyhound is still learning the trade and will only get stronger with age and more racing.
Darryl Chapman also added another dash of Grafton to the evening when his greyhound Wild Illusion was also successful on the card. Stepping out in the event following Cipollini, Wild Illusion settled second early before gaining the upper hand as they swung for home and eventually won nicely by 4 3/4 lengths in the good time of 29.94 seconds which was the second best of the night.
Local racing enthusiasts will have their eyes firmly set on The Gardens next Saturday evening as Northern Echo will be lining up as a likely prohibitive odds on favourite to take out the final irrespective of his box draw which will be done later in the week. In fact Reg's other runner Sammilicious, who ran a creditable second in her heat, looks to be the main danger.
The performances of each of the above mentioned greyhounds illustrates the quality of the greyhounds in the Grafton and also Northern Rivers region in general with greyhound racing on the way up.
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