Tassie hero pushes Father Time back into shadows

By Pat McLeod

Raider’s Guide continued to confirm his status as Tasmanian’s greatest greyhound and pushed Father Time further into the shadows with a compelling win in the Ladbrokes Group 2 Super Stayers Invitational Final (710m) on the Q2 Parklands on Thursday night.

Ther victory also prompted an emotional mother and daughter support team of Bev Fahey and Carol Martin to delay their champion’s pending retirement and most likely return for next week’s heats of the Group 1 Queensland Cup.

“To come back for a Group One race would in some ways be a great way to step out,” Martin said after Raider’s Guide had won by two-and-three-quarters-of-a-length from Ethanol Water (Thomas Dailly) and Autumn Storm (Tom Tzouvelis) in 41.33sec.

“You can't always go out on top.

“Every time he runs, because he is getting older and running against such talented younger dogs, you get a bit nervous that he might bow out with a poor performance because that would break his heart.

“It is very attractive at this stage to come back for the heats of the Queensland Cup next week. It will just all depend on how he pulls up and travels back home.”

The seemingly ageless four-year-old, who is trained by family patriarch, 80-year-old Gary Fahey, at their property at Mangalore, just north of Hobart, showed what a complete race dog he is in the unique four-dog feature.

Queensland star Autumn Storm (box 3) won the start, however Raider’s guide parked menacingly behind her, before making his move down the back straight the second time around and taking the lead.

Then Victorian great Ethanol Water began to loom ominously on the home turn.

However, the Apple Isle’s hero held firm for victory in the $75,000-to-the-winner event.

“I was really pleased that he didn't jump out 10 lengths last,” laughed Martin post-race.

“But where he sat was a great spot.

“The second time around with Ethanol Water sitting right on his tail, and she is such a quality dog, I started to get a little bit anxious that he might run out of puff, given it has been four weeks since his last start.

“But he has just so much determination and a will to chase.

“Unless there is a change of attitude, we will get him home, get him rested and if all goes well and depending on direct flights a return next week it is certainly on the cards because he seemed to handle this trip up really well.

“For mum and dad, the honour of being invited to this race with such quality participants, you can say your dog is not just an overnight success, but is a true champion.”

Also on Thursday night the Queensland-branch of the Britton brigade threw a ‘shock’ card into the expanding Queensland Cup pool with Akela Ninjutsu claiming the historic Chairman’s Cup Final (710m).

Part of the wide field of distance performers that Tim Britton and partner Martina Kirillids campaign out of the Churchable ‘satellite’ kennel, Akela Ninjutsu showed plenty of grit in the historic feature.

The Kirillidis-trained bitch tracked close to the leaders for the majority of the journey before starting a forward push on the final home turn with kennel star, Britton’s Red Dirt Road.

She then powered to the line to win by three-and-a-quarter-lengths with Red Dirt Road second and another from the kennel, WA visitor West On Boonie, running third.

The winning time was 41.76s.

“Oh yes, I was shocked with that result tonight,” Kirillidis said.

“When she got to the lead over Red Dirt Road I thought that was great, but I certainly did not think she would be able to hold the others out.

“So, it was a big shock.           

“Having said that, these dogs are bred to stay and they have been finding improvement in every run so far.

“She did hold this track record at 41.13 for just a small amount of time, so she has run some handy times.

“She is a little hit and miss, but is probably the best stayer out of this litter.

“We will go now to the Queensland Cup heats next week with the majority of our stayers and just see how we go from there and hopefully get some through to the final.”

Victorian trainer Anthony Azzopardi is now targeting the Group 1 Brisbane Cup with his exciting Gold Scotch after her win in Thursday night’s third feature on the Q2 Parklands circuit, the Tempest Final (600m).

“That was the finishing order that I expected,” Azzopardi said of Gold Scotch’s win over highly fancied kennelmate Gambella (third), with WA’s Boracay Summer (Steve Withers) in second place.

“This one (Gold Scotch) is going really well and I did expect her to lead.

“She now has miles under her legs and I did expect her to find the line well. She did the job and we are really happy.

“I will drop her back for the Brisbane Cup heats (520m) next week. If she can draw inside somewhere, then you never know.

“They won't run her down if she hits the front.”