El Galo makes its mark

By Stuart Teather
PEARCEDALE’S Victorian Greyhound Trainer of the Year Jason Thompson has had a tumultuous few weeks.
First, he was found guilty of presenting a dog for a race with a banned substance in its system; then the same dog blitzed the field in the heats of the Australian Cup, before suffering a shock upset in the finals a week later.
The dog was Thompson’s champion sprinter El Galo, widely lauded as the ‘fastest dog in the country’.
Running in the Australian Cup heats, El Galo posted blistering time of 29.75 seconds around the 525m track at The Meadows to lead the field ahead of Graeme Bate’s Velocette that ran 29.79.
The run prompted Bate to declare El Galo almost unbeatable, saying: “How the hell do you beat him – he’s the fastest sprinter since Brett Lee.”
In the final, El Galo did what he always does and jumped out in front, leading the field by almost three lengths down the back straight.
Bate’s Velocette settled into second, unable to match El Galo during the early stages of the race.
But towards the end the gap began to close and Velocette hit the lead with about 50m to run and never looked back, completing one of the upsets of the year.
Thompson said he was not surprised at the result after Velocette slotted into second place at the jump.
“I was not surprised by that dog, not when it turned second, no. I knew the race was over at the first corner,” he said.
“El Galo ran a super race, the other dog was just too good for him. The other dog is quite possibly the fastest dog in Australia with a clear run.
“I did say that I thought Big Moose would be hard to beat, but I was very wary of Velocette because if anyone can get a dog to win in a big race final it’s Graeme Bate.”
Thompson had a second runner in the race, Proven Polly that finished eighth in a close bunch.
It was a dramatic climax to a hectic month for Thompson, as two weeks earlier El Galo was disqualified from the Group 1 TopGun race he won last October after testing positive to the banned substance N-Butylhyoscine.
The decision meant Thompson and owner Seona Wood had to forfeit the $100,000 prize and were also fined $1000.
Thompson said he decided not to appeal the decision, because he saw no chance of having it reversed.
“We thought about (appealing), but the way the rules of racing are written, even though it was found that I didn’t knowingly do anything wrong, they can’t be beaten no matter how far you take them.
“We were prepared to go to the Supreme Court, but it wouldn’t have been possible to get the decision reversed.”
Thompson said he had put the issue to bed and was looking forward to running El Galo in what he declared was the dog’s final race series, the $150,000 Golden Easter Egg, which starts on 28 March.
“We will retire him after the Easter Egg,” he said.
“They can’t do it forever, the dog is getting up towards 60-odd starts and he’s done his job.
“Fortunately he’s going to have a good life in retirement and he’s done more than enough on the track.”