Deserved rewards for decent staying runners

Col reckoned that trainers who put in time and effort to get a decent stayer should be rewarded.

Paul Dolan. Picture: Warren Lynam

THE Col Harris Gold Sovereign series is an annual feature at the Ipswich Showgrounds.

The race is for lower grade middle distance greyhounds.

Col was the original sponsor, and when he passed away in 2009, his family continued the sponsorship.

Col reckoned that trainers who put in time and effort to get a decent stayer should be rewarded.

Peter O'Reilly trained the winner of the Gold Sovereign in 2012.

Pedro's First scored in the decent time of 37.33.

Pedro's First won a heat that year in 37.50.

Fast forward to last Saturday for the 2018 running of the Gold Sovereign, it was won by the O'Reilly trained Red Hot Spur who ran, would you believe, 37.50?

"I never met Col Harris but I've heard a lot of good stories about him,'' Yamanto based O'Reilly said.

Harris was involved in just about every facet of greyhound racing, including owner, trainer, breeder, administrator, media man and sponsor.

O'Reilly had three runners through to last Saturday's final but Phantom Pete was a late scratching.

"He hurt a leg jumping into the car on the way to the track,'' the trainer explained.

"It was nothing serious but enough to rule the dog out of the race.''

Double Spur, for O'Reilly, finished seventh from box four.

O'Reilly obtained Red Hot Spur and Double Spur in what is commonly referred to in greyhound racing as a "pup deal.''

No money is exchanged as a purchase price, and rearing and education costs are shared by the original owner and the purchaser.

"I missed out on Double Gee who is from the same litter. But that's how luck goes in racing, you choose them as puppies and hope for the best,'' O'Reilly said.

Double Gee is Queensland's latest staying find, winning the Origin Distance Challenge at Albion Park last Thursday.

Double Gee is trained by Selena Zammit.

The litter is by Dyna Double One out of Hot Spur.

Amazing feat

FOUR heats of the Young Guns and the annual staying test, the Grand Prix, highlight the card at the Showgrounds tomorrow night.

The Ray Burman trained Champagne Sally has box two in the Grand Prix over 732 metres.

Champagne Sally is the track record holder for 520 and 630 metres at Ipswich.

It would be an amazing feat, perhaps a record in itself, if she could break the 732 metres record. That stands to 2014 Grand Prix winner Wag Tail at 43.56 seconds.

Staggering figures

WE have all heard the expression that Australians would bet on two flies crawling up a wall.

It's true that we are a nation of gamblers.

Figures from wagering company Ubet confirm that.

For the financial year ended June 30, 2018, Sky Racing showed a staggering 140,733 races for us to bet on.

That's races of the three codes, not just greyhounds.

That's 2706 races per week which equates to 387 races per day.

Just on 50 percent of those races are beamed in from overseas countries.

Ipswich greyhounds contributes 30 races every week to those totals.

TAB club likely

CAPALABA is set to resume racing tomorrow week following the recent fire in the kennel block.

It seems a matter of time, and only a short wait, for the Capalaba venue to become a TAB club.

President John Catton believes the straight track could host two TAB meetings per week.

What timeslot Capalaba might occupy is not set in concrete.

However, Sunday looks a fair bet in that regard.

And perhaps Thursday twilight is the option as a lead-in to Albion Park.

Consider this

WHY is the one dollar coin twice as big as the two dollar coin but worth half the value?