Emerging star Dulceria eyes 2021 Townsville Cup

By Jordan Gerrans

Publicans Cup heat winner Dulceria will bypass next Thursday’s Final at Albion Park and will instead head north for a Townsville holiday and Cup campaign.

The Matt Heilbronn-trained bitch was one of the four heat winners on Thursday evening, alongside Sleuth, Indictment and Double Malt, for the popular Publicans Cup. 

The Raceview-based trainer will have to now switch his attention to the Townsville Cup after Dulceria suffered a minor pin injury on Thursday night and received a seven-day stand down.

The third-generation greyhound trainer is a regular in the North Queensland city come Cup time every year, and believes the bitch he bred will give the Group 3 event a shake.

The 2021 Townsville Cup has had a prizemoney increase to $40,000 in a move that will see the race receive Group 2 status in 2023.

The 498-metre series will be run on September 3 and 10.

Heilbronn expects to spend 12 days in Townsville while taking a team of dogs of around five up for the experience, including the promising Dulceria.

“It will be a rush to get her cleared now to get her ready for Townsville and the Townsville Cup,” Heilbronn said.

“It is early next month the Cup, so she will trial up there in the days leading in and use that as a look at the track and clear her.

“I go up for Townsville every year and Dulceria has been fast since day dot, it is just a matter of her putting it all together.

“She went 22.71 seconds over 395 metres at her first look ever, so she just has gears, she ran home in 12.68 seconds on Thursday night while checking off dogs, she is not a two-year-old until the end of November.”

From box two in the Publicans Cup heat on Thursday night, Dulceria got home in a time of 30.32 seconds over 520 metres – finishing almost three lengths ahead of Hopeful Bill.

On the run, Heilbronn believes the best is yet to come from the bitch out of a Zambora Brockie and Cindy Rumble litter.

Dulceria has four victories and two minor placings from just eight career starts in her emerging career.

“She was good, she ran good sectionals and showed she had more gears,” the trainer said of the Thursday night effort. 

“It is just a seven day injury and she can trial after seven days to clear her again.

“She just pulled up a bit sore in the pin muscle.”

Of the Zambora Brockie and Cindy Rumble litter, Heilbronn says the rest of the litter are taking a little longer than Dulceria to develop but expects they will be ready in the coming months.

Fellow heat winner Indictment was impressive for the Tony Brett kennel.

Indictment almost broke the Novice class record the week previous and is bred out of Brisbane Cup champion Jury, who Tony also trained.

Indictment followed that up on Thursday night with a smart run from box eight, finding the rail not long after going past the winning post for the first time and the powered away in the straight to score by six-and-a-half lengths.

Indictment gets the pink rug again in the Final on Thursday night following the box draw while Brett kennel mate Interrogate, who finished second in the heat Sleuth won, will jump from box one in the Final.