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Mac Roamin’ Making Middle Distance his Own

12 September 2019

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By Isaac Murphy

Bob Adams is a boutique trainer. The passionate greyhound man might just have the three in work at his Inala property, but 600 metre proposition Mac Roamin’ is making plenty of noise against some of Queensland’s best middle-distance dogs and will look to go three on end this Thursday night.

A noted tardy beginner Mac Roamin’ is no stranger to giving his rivals a start, but Adams believes there is plenty in his favour this week.

“The small field is a huge bonus to him, he’ll most likely get back and the fewer he has to navigate the better,” Adams said.

“A lot of people used to think he had to come up with the red to win and although it does help, he’s shown he can do it from anywhere at the moment.”

“Dynamite Lucy and Miss Gingin are certainly worthy competition, but the advantage we have is the rail, if he can camp on the fence the trip, he’s got a very good chance of winning.”

Adams said since day dot it had always been the dogs racing pattern. While he used to get nervous early days, he now knew his capabilities and with a minor operation complete the soon to be three-year-old is about to hit his straps.

“He’s been a backmarker from break in and though it’s taken a while to get used to his style, we’ve seen him win enough races to know that not all is lost when he gets himself in challenging positions,” Adams said.

“His big win over the 600 at Albion two starts back was under duress, he had a testicle up in his groin which would have annoyed him the whole way around.”

“We were already encouraged by the way he was going, but from all reports having the operation will free him up even more to have him racing pain free is a great result, I was rapt with his return over the 520 at Ipswich, he did it tough from the eight and it should hold him in good stead for the 600 this week.”

Like a lot of trainers Adams faced the tough question of when Mac Roamin’ would be mature enough to handle the 600 and is glad he bided his time with a number of middle distance and staying features on the horizon.

“We always like to kick our dogs off at the 520 and you want to be really sure before you entertain the 600 and apart from his latest little hiccup, he was ticking all the boxes of a dog ready for the extra ground,” Adams said.

“There are some nice features coming up over the 600 at Albion Park in the back half of this year with the Middle-Distance Challenge which we’ll target, but with him travelling as well as he is, I’m already looking at some 710 metre racing.”

“Ideally we want to keep him at his home track when he makes the jump and if we can get a couple of seven hundreds in his legs and make sure he’s handling it before the Summer Distance Final in early January that looks a nice race for him to start his staying career.”

After retiring Adams has been able to devote his full attention to his small team and if Mac Roamin’ shows he’s up to the grade would not waver to travel with him.

“We haven’t really travelled him at all in his career, but quality staying races are fairly sparse on the calendar so I wouldn’t hesitate to travel him under the right circumstances,” he said.

“I’ve waited all my life to have an opportunity with a dog like this and hopefully he can give me a few thrills before it’s all said and done.”