The Sunday Afternoon “Finish On”

WITH cracking wins at Sale, Geelong and Warragul on her resume, it comes as no surprise that 2017 Melbourne Cup finalist Aston Miley has proven to be a blue hen matron.

Her first litter by Brett Lee (April '18) produced the likes of Aston Tatum (14 wins), Aston Lee (14) Aston Maeve (11) and Aston Rapide (9) with seven of the eight siblings boasting wins.

As talented and successful as they have been, Wednesday's Warrnambool GRV Vic Bred heat winner Aston Rupee certainly turned heads.

The black dog was heavily supported from the time markets were first framed and those who secured the ‘black odds' about the son of KC And All were gifted comfortable viewing.

From the six alley, the youngster shanghaied clear after just a few bounds and raced away to score by just on eight lengths in 24.95.

His time was only .04s slower than Zipping Sullivan's (a recent Melbourne Cup Finalist) 24.91s best-of-night offering yet he'll not have it all his own way in the January 9 Final.

A three-quarter brother to 2020 Topgun winner Shima Shine, Shima Classic is owned and trained in the same interests and registered a quicker first section (6.43s in comparison to 6.47s) and, overall, there was just .11s separating the pair.

The box draw has added extra spice to the equation with Shima Classic drawing box two while Aston Rupee gets clear air early on from box eight.

It's only the first week of January yet these April '19 juveniles set an early benchmark for juveniles to be compared to.

KEEPING FOCUS

Greyhound racing continues to face challenges from demands by animal activist groups to put an end to the code and, in NSW in 2016, their job was all-but done.

Much needed to change culture-wise in this country and the shift was immediate.

That said, the dark forces will not relent and on Christmas Day, the Greyhound Racing Integrity Ireland showed their advocacy for greyhound racing in a bare-all post on Facebook of the efforts of UK-based Caged Nationwide and Candy Cane Rescue to discredit the code in the UK and Ireland.

Part of the GRII post went this way: "Why have you have placed an order for 4 Greyhounds to brought to the Meat Market?

Why have you previously done the same with whippets and other breeds before??

Why are you only looking and willing to pay higher amounts for greyhounds in poor condition?

Why do you say you don't buy dogs but from your accounts you paid over 70k Sterling buying dogs?"

Caged Nationwide seeks to do maximum harm by manufacturing evidence.

The screenshot of a Messenger post (below) says it all.

The tactics were used to besmirch Vietnam's animal welfare standards (with greyhounds falsely purported to have been exported from Australia) and those ‘facts' were taken on board by the McHugh Special Commission as valid – no questions asked!

This is a battle greyhound racing must endure yet the diligence of the Irish integrity unit must be applauded. Let's hope Greyhounds Australasia and the relevant state authorities advocate in a similar fashion for participants if need be!

NO BORDER HOPPERS

The fluid nature of COVID-19 containment and imminent border restricts is yet to impact on feature races with Friday's Warragul Cup heats the first litmus test.

Karina Britton's star Wow and kennelmate Ad Astra come quickly to mind as being Warragul Cup-suited (January 8 heats) yet there are ‘bigger fish to fry' closer to home.

Movement of greyhounds for the Million Dollar Chase was handled adroitly and, with the siblings surely set for the Group 1 Paws Of Thunder heats at Wentworth Park on January 16, it highlights the log-jam which is the national feature race calendar.

Next week, the Warragul Cup kicks off, the Golden Ticket heats (best 16 nominated) will be conducted at Albion Park thereafter with the National Derby, National Futurity and Paws Of Thunder all done and dusted by January 23.

The border issues will certainly impact the quality and quantity of nominations from state to state but the broader issue is a racing calendar which serves no individual well.

The lure of $150,000 to-the-winner at Albion Park on February 4 (Gold Bullion heats January 28) is another case in point.

END OF AN ERA

Florida's first greyhound track was built in 1922 but racing was not legalised for another nine years.

On Thursday, state legislation closed something like 13 tracks in the "Pan Handle state closed.

The final race was staged at Derby Lane at 11.59pm on Thursday, just one minute before the ban took effect.

Animal rights groups spent decades pushing lawmakers to end racing and with Grey2K unrelenting in their mindset to get their way.

"The trend is definitely with the greyhounds. We're very hopeful that the cruelty of dog racing is going to end, not just in this country, but across the globe," Christine Dorchak, President of Grey2K USA Worldwide said.

The Southland track is set to close next year and Wheeling is owned in the same interest as Southland.

Grey2K is working at 10 tenths to shut down Tri-State and Wheeling in West Virginia

The future is clouded at Dubuque (Iowa) while the state's other venue Bluff's Run closed about four years back.

American sires have had a monumental impact on the breeding stock in Australia in the past decade or so – mirroring the significance of Irish champ Waverly Supreme.

And it was Grey2K which a former CEO of Greyhounds Australasia hosted at Sandown with the probable ill-conceived notion of trying to keep friends close and enemies even closer!

12 MONTHS ON

It's hard to rationalise just 12 months back, out-of-control fires devastated much of the eastern seaboard.

Lives, livestock and property was lost on an unprecedented level yet, on a personal note, a tiny ray of sunshine was our own evacuation (to Bulli and Appin racetracks) which gave young pups an impromptu and crash course in kennel exposure.

At both tracks, six month-old pups needed to be placed in race kennels for four full days (with toilet breaks every couple of hours) and those youngsters are now making their way on the track.

June ‘19 whelping Shaye was just one of our 43 ‘evacuees' and she posted her fourth win (at start five) at Dubbo on Friday.

Amanda Ginn and Craig Tuntler deserve all the credit for her early success but I've no doubt her ‘maturity' was honed in those dangerous days before Christmas in 2019.

The kennelling was a necessity (the house was likely to be lost hence the exit-stage-left strategy) but it's something which will be the norm for us hereafter.

The benefits are tangible.