John ‘JC’ Catton is well known to readers of this site as my favourite greyhound trainer.
He’s not really, but his brother’s a big bastard and doesn’t like me after a wee story I wrote about his close friend Desleigh, and wouldn’t mind giving if pressed (and fast enough), so I suck up JC to avoid the conflict and the danger of bloodshed, plus I’ve known him since he was a pup himself so loyalty looms large and sounds a powerful bell.
My real favourite trainer is …. umm.
Mick Zammit? Tony Apap? Darren Russell? Serena Lawrence? The Doc down south of the Murray? The bloke who trained my mate Matt’s dog Lucky Hero to win at Albion Park after I’d backed from $101 into enough to buy the pint sized unit from where I’m presently penning this prose?
Yeah that bloke.
The others are all my mates, and top class trainers, but this bloke won me sun, sand, beach and resort pool full of South American backpackers wearing not very much. I have to put him first. What was his name again? Um, um, um.
Oh shit.
It’s JC.
Yesterday the sly dog (trainer) slipped a winner in without giving me the tip. Well, he did send me the tip, but I was asleep. You’d think he could have paid an Uber driver to come around and bang on the door to wake me up, wouldn’t you? Bloody tight-arse.
It wasn’t just any race he won either, it was a heat of the Dave Brett Memorial, the 2nd best maiden series in the State after the Vince Curry Memorial, and a race boasting a final worth 25 grand, which JC is a live chance of snagging after his dog – owned and trained, thanks for coming – ran the 3rd fastest time in the heats yesterday to slip into a spot in the big one to be run next Thursday night at Albion Park.
The pretty little thing (the dot not JC) should be able to run fast with a name like it too.
Black Monaro.
What else can you think of when you hear that name but a V8 powered beast with a pair of fluffy dice swinging from the rear vision mirror?
Black Monaro the greyhound was exactly that today.
But he can he do it again next week in the grand final.
The time stats say yes.
The average winning time of the Dave Brett over the past 15 years is 30.24.
JC’s speed machine ran 30.22, so he’s right in the game on that.
Heat 2 winner She’s Some Fox (named after Chenille Yeomans, for those of the younger brigade) isn’t fast enough at 30.45, and the runner of King of Cool looks for all money to me to be the most dreaded type of greyhound in the game, an arse chaser, aka a nonnie. We’ll let owner/trainer Mark Saal keep him.
The slowest winning time ever in the Dave Brett was 30.64, so that wipes the Heat 4 runner-up Bella Sensation out of contention, for she had clear running from the front and couldn’t go any faster than 30.81.
Winner of that heat Jupiter would be all but knocked out on yesterday’s time too, but I reckon you will find that with a good jump and clear running he will go a whole lot faster, and be right in the final. I just sniff a Tom and Jedda special going on here, as evidenced by the successful plunge on the dog first-up after 2 months today. His jump was awful from box 7, but from the 2 trap I reckon it might be a whole lot different.
Heat 3 was easily the fastest of the day, and with the winner and runner-up both exactly the same boxes in the final is the most obvious form line. I reckon there might be a problem with it though, for the 1 dog who beat him yesterday and for the 2.
The problem is that the 7 dog Starline Express exploded from the boxes and ran an incredible first split of 5.44, a time rarely seen in any class at AP.
For those unfamiliar with dog times, the fastest time ever run at the Creek over the Dave Brett distance of 520m belongs to the champion Sennachie, who on the 4th of July 2019 ran a sizzling 29.38.
Sennachie did it from an inside draw in the Group 1 Brisbane Cup.
His first split was the same as the one that Starline Express ran today.
In a maiden.
That’s just unbelievable, and scary too.
What’s even scarier is that the 1 dog Mighty Gunn, which is by the boom US sire Superior Panama, sat off that one and beat it from behind by 100th of a second – 30.10 v 30.11 – which means it is bloody damn good too.
Now here is the problem, for everyone but JC.
Starline Express is likely to ping again, and if it leads it crashes straight across the field to the rail, potentially wiping most of them out, perhaps even the 1. Yesterday was Mighty Gunn’s first start, so he will gain benefit from the experience and run up to half a second faster this time around. Which means that he will be up inside the back legs of the 7 as they sprint to the first turn, creating a situation where either it wipes the 1 out, or they tangle.
Guess who will be outside them as they do?
The 8 dog who has followed Starline Express across.
Black Monaro.
JC.
While the other two are tussling he puts the pedal down and accelerates around them to the lead and the rail.
Game over.
They won’t catch him.
Far-fetched?
Not really.
If it happens it will be ring a ding ding, and JC will be King.
Those Black Monaro’s are smoking hot you know.
They handle the turns well too.
Vroom, Vroom, Vroom!
You can find the replays of the four heats on the Brisbane Greyhounds Facebook page at this address https://www.facebook.com/BrisGreys/videos/1222753071653603/
This is going to be a great race, and a worthy tribute to the brilliant trainer and top man Dave Brett, who left us all too young.
Lest we forget.