Atomic Prince crowned the king of Townsville

By Josh Spasaro

Atomic Prince might have produced a remarkable four-and-a-quarter length win in the Group 2 Townsville Cup last Friday night, but he travelled north as the least-fancied sibling.

They were the thoughts of trainer Peter O’Reilly when reflecting on a dominant performance from box two, after the Superior Panama and Abby Boom chaser saluted in 28.25 seconds.

“This win is up there with the best of them,” the Yamanto-based conditioner said.

“Atomic Tiger was the better one. This bloke has overtaken him now.

“But Tiger hurt his back muscle up there in the heats, so that was what put him out.

“He just seems to be improving every run.”

The two-and-a-half-year-old brindle dog only had one start before the Townsville Cup series, blitzing a fifth-grade field by seven-and-three-quarters of a length and crossing the line in 28.60 seconds on August 31.

He only got better from there, prevailing by two-and-three-quarter lengths in his heat and registering a time of 28.37 seconds in the 498-metre event.

“He went good in his first look at the track at Townsville. That was his first look – I just chucked him in for a run.

“I didn’t have time. I got up there on Saturday and I thought I’d just race him – that’d be his trial.

“I was pretty confident. I thought he’d find a little bit more and he did, so that was great.”

Originally running for Grant Franklin, O’Reilly has trained Atomic Prince to all eight of his wins from just 15 starts, after he went winless from his first 16 races.

The in-form trainer has also had success with litter siblings Atomic Beau, Atomic Ghost and Atomic Tiger after they too started their careers under Franklin’s care.

“I only got him a few months ago. I got those four litter siblings off Grant,” he said.

“They weren’t doing much then, but all of a sudden they just turned around for some reason.

“They must’ve matured a little bit and started going.”

O’Reilly said Franklin was delighted with Atomic Prince’s comfortable Townsville Cup victory, after he flashed past Wicket on his inside, before the turn.

He then lengthened with ease on the home straight.

“I rang Grant straight after the race,” he said.

“He’s stoked. At the end of the day, they’re still his dogs. I had to put them into my name to train them, so that’s the deal with them.

“If he wants them back, they’re his. He said he’d rather get half of something than half of nothing.

“We went to school together.”

O’Reilly knew Atomic Prince was in with a genuine chance at Townsville Cup glory after he ran the second-fastest heat time of 28.37 seconds, only beaten by Ground Control’s effort of 28.20 seconds for Heath Ardle.

He also believed his chaser would be hard to beat from box two, particularly with Wicket lining up from box one for Austin ‘Rusty’ Dillon.

Ground Control and Wicket ended up finishing second and third, respectively.

“A lot of people said the one comes out and goes hard right, and they thought it might take me out,” he said.

“I talked to Rusty, and he said ‘no, he comes out straight’. He came out pretty straight, and when I sat behind him I knew I’d run him down.

“Once he got into third and second, I thought they won’t catch him. Heath Ardle’s dog is strong too, but I knew my bloke had too much pace for him to come after him.

“He’s a pretty smart dog. He doesn’t try to run into dogs. He seems to wait.

“If you watch him go down the back straight, you could see he was just trailling that dog.

“It looked like he was just doing enough to go with him, and as soon as the dog moved off a metre he just went through him like he was standing still.”

O’Reilly said he hadn’t thought too far ahead regarding the next feature aim for Atomic Prince.

“I haven’t even had a look. I don’t know where to start. Grant still owns him and he said he’d like to go after the Chase series, but I said that’s a big call for young dogs who are two-and-a-half years old,” he said.

“There are going to be some super dogs in that.”