La Rosa adamant Andy can progress in Townsville

By Josh Spasaro

Adamant Andy has a bright future in North Queensland.

Those are the thoughts of trainer John La Rosa, with the 23-month-old blue brindle dog to jump from box eight over 380 metres on Tuesday night.

“He was floating through them all. Then he got crowded, but he pulled up OK from it,” La Rosa said of the dog's debut performance in NQ. 

The trainer also works as a bus driver and is based at Mareeba near Cairns.

The Tommy Shelby and Roaring Rosa chaser was competitive in the lower grades for Christine Proctor at Richmond. He won on debut and has four victories from 22 starts.

His last triumph was at Richmond on September 13.

“I actually have a friendship with the owner, Trent Kiner. And, I’ve purchased dogs from him before. He owns the dog and he rang me and offered it to me,” La Rosa said.

“That was how I acquired him.”

La Rosa believes Adamant Andy can progress through the grades at Townsville.

“I worked out his times from what he was running in Richmond to up here - he should go pretty good,” he said.

“He’ll probably go up a couple of grades before he gets held up a little bit.

“He was running OK down there.”

At just under 32kg, Adamant Andy is a strong dog.

“He’s a little bit shorter than the other fella I’ve got. He’s real stocky and he’s got some muscle on him, as well,” La Rosa said.

Hobby trainer La Rosa added Adamant Andy was the ideal addition to his small operation.

“I’ve only got three dogs. We don’t need dogs for numbers - we just need to be competitive,” he said.

“I don’t need a Melbourne Cup winner; I just want something that is competitive and Trent knows that.

“This dog seems like he’s going to be competitive and we just want to give him a good run.

“It’s just a hobby for me. I’m a bus driver and I’m ecstatic with the couple of wins I get.”