Kel To Celebrate Healesville Hat-trick With Frothies

LEADING Victorian trainer Kel Greenough is eyeing off a third victory in the Group 3 SEN 1116 Healesville Cup (350m) on Sunday afternoon with lightly-raced former Tasmanian Friday Frothies.

Friday Frothies made a sensational return from nearly four months on the sidelines when he claimed qualifying honours in last Sunday's Healesville Cup heats, eliminating series favourite Peter Galo in the process.

A well-bred son of Barcia Bale and Miss Hetti, closely related to Greenough's 2012 Group 1 Hume Cup winner Jethro, Friday Frothies hadn't been seen in action since May 19 when he was unlucky in the Healesville Derby.

"He's had a couple of serious injuries," said Greenough, who claimed back-to-back Healesville Cups in 2014 and 2015 with Frosty Jay Jay, which upstaged superstar kennelmate Paw Licking, and Allkel To Excel.

"He fractured a metatarsal bone and then we got him back but he sprained two wrists. I started wondering if the dog was going to make it."

In a masterful training manoeuvre, Greenough adopted an unusual approach in the countdown to the Healesville Cup, electing to take Friday Frothies coursing a week earlier.

"Because of his injury issues I wanted to give him the safest run possible so I went down to Lang Lang for a coursing run," Greenough explained.

"One of the locals said to me do you know how fast that run was and I replied that I had no idea because I've never been here before!

"He was only about a length off the record and the track was pretty average too."

As if returning from a lengthy injury-enforced break in Group company wasn't daunting enough, Friday Frothies was drawn in the fourth and toughest of the six Healesville Cup heats, where he started a $23.50 outsider from box eight.

Healesville specialist Peter Galo, which broke the 350m track record when winning the inaugural National Straight Track Championship last month, was the $1.60 favourite, with National Championship placegetter Myrniong And All at $8.60.

In a massive upset, Friday Frothies stuck to the outside and finished best in a thrilling blanket finish, defeating Myrniong And All by a head in a best of day 18.94s, with odds-on favourite Peter Galo a half-length away in third.

"Realistically there were five quality dogs in the race and I was thinking how did I get stuck in that heat?" Greenough laughed.

"Things started to fall into place about a month ago and his lead-in trials were very good. It was just a matter of whether he was good enough against those dogs."

WATCH: Friday Frothies' impressive heat success

It was Friday Frothies' fifth win from just eight career starts, with his first three victories coming in Tasmania under the guidance of owner Scott Bryan.

After drawing box four for Sunday afternoon's $47,000 to-the-winner Cup Final, Friday Frothies is an $8 chance with TAB.

Myrniong And All (box 8) is the $3 favourite, ahead of Startron (1), the only other sub-19s heat winner, at $4 and NSW litter and kennel mates Cee Jay's Boy (3) and Hardaway Titan (5) at $4.80 and $5 respectively.

"He went the quickest in the heats but there was only a very small margin between the first three or four in his heat," Greenough offered.

"He's drawn the middle and the speed is in one (Startron), seven (Emerald Rainbow) and eight (Myrniong And All) so he's going to need luck getting a run through.

"He's not quick early but runs on hard so he's going to need a clear run when he goes for it. It's not going to be easy but he's there.

"We've been lucky enough to win the race a couple of times but he's a different type of dog to the other two. He's probably stronger than both of them but he wouldn't have the speed of Allkel To Excel.

"It's been so far so good with his comeback and I'm just hoping I can keep him sound. He's only about two and a quarter and I think he's a really strong dog and will get 500m at least."