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Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree for Surgenie

12 September 2018

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Surgenie is a greyhound going places, the soon to be two year old has burst onto the scene winning two of his three race starts, most knocking over his Novice over the 520, but trainer Bob Giltinan believes the progressive chaser will one day look for more ground.

Surgenie looks to continue his form when he jumps from box three in the Box 1 Photography 5th Grade tomorrow night, but Giltinan said the step up in class would test his dog.

“It’s a big jump from the novice to a graded race, but luckily you get that one free fifth grade race if you win without affecting your grading, so I thought we’d give him a crack at them while he was going good,” he said.

“He’s done a good job early in his career getting to the rail from some outside boxes so to get the three tomorrow night will only do him good.”

The box draw is welcome relief for the dog who has overcome alleys 5 and 8 for his two race wins, Giltinan believes the closer to the rail the better for a dog with unreliable box manners.

“He doesn’t have that early speed and he’s desperate for the fence, so he needs a bit of luck early but if he’s near enough he’s a good chance of running them down,” he said.

“The closer to the fence the better, the three gives him a chance to find the rail earlier than some of his previous races.”

Having not been quick away in his previous victories Surgenie has had to rely on impressive mid and closing sectionals to track down the leaders, a trait he likely inherited from his Mother.

“He’s out of a stayer Hougenie, who was a ripping bitch, so hopefully he can get a bit of ground like his mum one day,” he said.

“We’re hoping that one day he’ll get the 600 and 710, but you don’t know till they go over it, they can show every indication of getting over it but until they actually do it you don’t know.”

Surgenie doesn’t turn two until November and Giltinan said it had only been recently that the dog began to put it together.

“He was only going average as a pup but that was over the 400’s and he hadn’t had a 500, so he began to improve once we got him up over that distance, the 400’s with no early speed the sectionals weren’t there,” he said.

Giltinan who mainly buys his pups off breeders, received a stroke of luck when Surgenie became available from the Tony Apap kennel, the trainer quick to snap him up.

 “Surgenie actually came to me through Tony Apap, who asked if I’d be interested, at the time he was full up and I decided to pick him up.”

Giltanan said he was running a fairly small operation at the moment, but having less dogs gave him opportunities bigger kennels don’t have.

“I’ve got probably two or three racing at the moment out of a kennel of twelve,” he said.

“It does have its advantages, I’ve got plenty of time to put in to the few I’ve got going round and Surgenie is probably the most promising of them.”