Nice Tip Jim clever beyond his years

By Josh Spasaro

You cannot teach raw pace in a juvenile dog, but Nice Tip Jim showed he is blessed with it when flashing home to win by half a length on debut.

A week later, he won his second start by a comfortable five lengths, saluting in a maiden final over 352 metres at Q1 Lakeside on August 19.

From box three, he should again be tough to beat with a perfect winning record going into the fourth Dave Brett Memorial Heat over 457 metres at the same venue on Saturday night.

“The draw is OK. He’s only had two starts and has been coming out all right, so I expect him to be up there somewhere,” Postmans Ridge-based trainer John Jeffrey said.

Along with speed, Jeffrey said his Tommy Shelby and Urana Shelby chaser possessed the maturity of an older, more experienced greyhound.

“That was a good debut win. He got ran off the track, but you can’t teach every dog to do that,” he said.

“It was a good start to his career. He was forced to do that (find late on the home straight) after getting pushed off the track.

“For his first start, you don’t see that very often when they get a bit of adversity and still come home over the top of them.”

Jeffrey was then impressed with the way his blue dog got to an early lead and never looked like losing in his second career start last month.

“He came out good and took off. He’s promising,” he said. 

At 31.5kg, Nice Tip Jim has a lean and strong physique to match the racing nous he already possesses as a two-year-old dog.

“He’s a well-built, muscular sort of dog. He’s very new,” he said.

“I bred that litter and they’re pretty immature, so it’s taken a little while to get them going.

“But they’re improving all the time, so we’ll see how he goes. Running over 457 metres will be a stretch for him, but he’s getting there.”

Litter sister Tilly Time made her debut on Wednesday, finishing last in a maiden over 352 metres at Q1 Lakeside.

But Jeffrey believes she will require a little longer to develop compared to Nice Tip Jim.

“She came out all right, but just got cluttered up,” he said.

“I’m not too worried about it. She’ll make a race dog at some stage.

“There’s another one in the litter (Blue Moon Party). She’s probably the fastest of them, but she’s a bit more immature than the others and it’s taken her a little while.

“It’s a bit of a test for me, but we’ll take our time with her and hopefully we’ll get there eventually.”

The dam, Urana Shelby, finished her career with 12 wins from 44 starts.

“She held the track record at Townsville for a short period of time,” Jeffrey said.

“I got her off Mark Partland and I thought Tommy Shelby would be a good match-up.

“So far I seem to have got it right, but there’s a long way to go.”