Burmans banking on brother and sister to stay

By Isaac Murphy

Everyone is looking to time their run at a packed TAB Queensland Winter Greyhound Racing Carnival, and one kennel you can always count on being there is that of Ray and Mary Burman.

This year, the pair will be focusing on the smorgasbord of staying events for up-and-coming litter mates Smart Lilly and Regal Rocky.

Both will contest Thursday night’s Fourth and Fifth grade contest over the 700 metres, and Mary Burman is keen to see where they’re at before black-type racing begins.

“Smart Lilly has racing over the 600 metres for in excess of a month now, she’s been working home really well over that trip and we jumped at the chance to get her back to the 700 this week where she’s won two of three so far,” Burman said.

“She’s well boxed out in seven, she’s got good speed early and doesn’t mind sitting a couple of lengths off the fence which she might have to do with her brother (Regal Rocky) likely to kick up and lead from the red.

“I’d expect her to get the better of him somewhere throughout the run given her experience over the trip, but he was far from disgraced first look last week.”

Burman said Regal Rocky had always shown the most talent of the Aston Dee Bee/Bizarre Barbie pups and was keen to see if the sprinter could continue to morph towards a stayer.

“After he led everywhere except the finish line in the Listed Carnival Chase when Ninetymile King nabbed him, we thought last week was the right time to see how he’d cover the staying trip,” Burman said.

“He did what we thought he would get well out in front mid-race and just rolled along at cruising speed, he got tired coming to the home turn, but it was more than a pass mark for his first 700.

“He probably doesn’t have the staying prowess of his sister (Smart Lilly) at the moment, but his brilliant box speed gives him an advantage early.”

The Burmans are old school when it comes to their pups, never having to leave their property until they’re ready to race, something that brings plenty of advantages.

“The litter only turned two last month but compared to others their age have done a lot of racing since we’ve had them at the track from around 18 months,” Burman said.

“Doing all our own breeding and racing, it’s a lot easier to gauge when they’re ready to start and as a general rule most of our litters have started young and we’ve learnt plenty about them by the time they’re this age.

“The exciting part is at 25 months they’re still only babies and you hope their ability just continues to grow as they head towards three.”

Given Smart Lilly’s stellar start to her staying career, her upcoming schedule could be career-defining with the biggest staying races in the country on her doorstep.

“Smart Lilly is in a really nice position; we already know she can run time over the 700 (41.94) and now she gets five to six weeks of solid racing which is exactly what a young stayer needs,” Burman said.

“We’ve got this race and the Dashing Corsair coming up before Origin which is the ideal audition for her to get a start over the distance.

“I think with those few runs in her legs, she’s well and truly capable of getting down around that 41.8 mark where she can be a real contender in the Super Stayers and the Queensland Cup.”

As always, the kennel is one step ahead with not one but two litters out of champion bitch Champagne Sally well on their way to the track.

“The Champagne Sally/Out of Range pups have broken in exceptionally; we’ve been trialling them at Ipswich and there’s going to be at least a couple from that litter who’ll be really outstanding,” Burman said.

“I want to start them over the 500 at Albion, so we’re looking to get them trials here in the next week and you should see a few hitting the track in the next fortnight.

“There were 11 pups in that first litter; we kept eight, sold two and sent one to the GAP and she’s just had another litter to Sennachie with 11 more pups who are six weeks old.”