Team Byers building on record-breaking season at Ipswich

By Alex Nolan

Fast youngster Spring Maple will spearhead Team Byers’ attack on Tuesday’s Ipswich meeting as they look to build on a record-breaking season at the track.

Headed by Pauline Byers, in conjunction with her son Shane, Team Byers has recorded 101 winners at their favoured circuit in 2021.

It’s the first time the kennel has registered 100 winners in a year since family patriarch, the late Colin Byers, brought up a ton in 2014.

The kennel is best known for their tremendous results at Ipswich and strong association with the Board Racing syndicate and their greyhounds that carry the ‘Spring’ prefix.

Spring Maple is one of three greyhounds to race from Board Racing’s Fernando Bale and Spring Leaf litter.

Brothers Spring Patriot and Spring Renegade are trained by Scott Board at Spring Hill in NSW and have combined to win nine races from 20 starts.

Spring Maple made it a perfect two-from-two start to her career when she won a Maiden Final at Ipswich in 25.38 seconds on December 14.

She returns looking to go three-from-three when she jumps from box three in the Novice - the fourth event of the afternoon - at 3:12pm.

“She’s been wanting an inside box and at her first two starts she has jumped from six and seven,” Shane said.

“She has really good box manners and great early speed … box three is definitely going to suit her better and we expect her to run really well.”

Team Byers was set to have nine runners contest races at Ipswich on Tuesday, including Spring Rock, Spring Chip and Spring Duty in the Best 8.

The team made a rare appearance at Albion Park last Thursday night when they presented Spring Kono to contest a heat of the Group 2 Bogie Leigh Futurity.

Spring Kono overcame early trouble to finish third in her heat, which was won by the Terry Medcalf trained Stop Watch.

She will jump from box six in Thursday’s $60,000 final.

Spring Kono was forced to wait three weeks between her only trial at Albion Park and her first race start at the track in the Futurity, owing to inclement weather.

“She was due to trial again the following week but we got half-way to the track and they were called off,” Shane said.

“The following week I had her rugged up and ready to race in her heat (on December 9) but the storm rolled in and we lost the meeting.”  

Shane suspects Spring Kono will derive plenty of benefit from her first outing at ‘The Creek’.

“She’ll improve a hell of a lot on the other night,” he said.

“She needs to begin better than she did last week and, getting used to those boxes, hopefully she will.”

Spring Kono is the team’s only greyhound to race at Albion Park in years and their decision to tackle the Futurity was a major vote of confidence in her ability.

“If she jumps better and gets a bit of luck around that first corner and is somewhere near them at the 600 metre boxes, she’ll be hard to hold out because the best part of her races is the last section,” he said.

Spring Kono was the fastest qualifier for this year’s Group 2 Ipswich Cup before running a game fifth in the final after jumping from box seven.