Velocity Montana to continue firing in Young Guns heats

By Josh Spasaro

Velocity Montana is off to an excellent start to her career and owner Steve Williams believes she’s in good hands in Steven Scott’s kennels.

The 21-month-old bitch has comfortably won her past two starts going into her Townsville Young Guns heat on Tuesday night.

What has been appealing about her two victories has been the way she jumped cleanly, established an early lead and finished strongly.

“Yeah, for sure, she’s started well and finished well,” Williams said.

Velocity Montana is by Hooked On Scotch and out of Velocity Chance. Troy Murray trained Velocity Chance to nine wins from 32 starts for Williams.

Velocity Chance went on to be a prolific dam, with her black dog Inevitable winning the 2024 Rockhampton Cup for Scott.

“We’ve been lucky over the years. We’ve bred some nice ones,” Williams said. 

“She (Velocity Chance) is now with Darren Taylor.”

Williams praised consistent Sarina-based conditioner Scott with his greyhound training commitments seeing him accumulate plenty of kilometres most weeks while racing them around Queensland.

“He’s very dedicated,” the long-term owner said.

“Steve’s good with the dogs. He knows his dogs, feeds them well and does the right thing by them.”

Williams has had an association with Scott for over 20 years.

But, the highly-successful owner and breeder has fought a private health battle in recent times, scaling back his 'Velocity Lodge' operation at Hervey Bay.

“We had to pull right back,” he said.

“I haven’t bred any for a long time now. I bred a litter by Jungle Deuce out of Velocity Bettina. Half were her, half were Velocity Chance.

“And, Tommy Shelby – Velocity Tonelli. That’s it, no more. Finished.

“Of course, it does (being involved in the greyhound racing community helps me). There are people worse off than me.”

The hype is building over Velocity Montana. The juvenile blue bitch only has five career starts to her name.

In last start, she saluted by two-and-a-quarter lengths over 407 metres at Rockhampton as she crossed the line in 23.53 seconds on May 13.

But, Williams was humble when asked about her chances in Tuesday night’s feature sprint over 380 metres.

She will jump from box two in the second of three heats on the 12-race card.

“I haven’t seen the field. I think some of the others ran faster than her,” he said.

Scott will also have litter sister Velocity Moonlit, owned by Williams, starting from box three in the third Townsville Young Guns heat.

She, too, has shown potential, with two wins from six career starts.

See The Fire and Kej Stefani are Scott’s other Young Guns heat starters.