Dogs feel the heat

By Justin Robertson
CRANBOURNE Greyhound Racing Club played host to the Great Chase series heats on Monday night.
The annual Greyhound Racing Victoria state-wide racing event saw four locally trained dogs qualify for the semi-finals to be held at Warragul race track next Monday night.
The chase heats were made up of 14 dogs over two separate races but it was Devon Meadows-trained Miss Charelle and Runaway Success who qualified in heat one, while Saint Dellsy (Cranbourne) and Uno the Dream (Officer) made the cut in the other qualifier.
Dogs need to finish top two to qualify for the next stage of the series and if successful in next week’s semis will compete in the final at the Melbourne Greyhound Club in Broadmeadows on Wednesday 24 November.
Cranbourne Racing Club chief executive Tony Wright said the series – which has been running since May 2003 – looks at supporting more than 150 Victorian community disability groups.
“The series was designed to give community groups with disabilities a chance to participate in greyhounds and to see what it is all about,” he said.
“We are not expecting them to bet. We try and provide an atmosphere for them to come and have a fun time and get to know a bit about greyhound racing, get to meet and pat the dogs and hopefully we can provide that for them as a community benefit.”
With each heat win community groups will receive a $500 cheque courtesy of Greyhound Racing Victoria and $5000 if they are victorious in the final.
From there the group will be linked with that dog for a whole year until the next Great Chase series and will receive 10 per cent of the dog’s earnings during that period.
A handful of local trainers will have entrants in this week’s Melbourne Cup heats.
Devon Meadows trainer Greg Tatti has drawn box one with his dog Crossfarnogue, which has raced consistently throughout this year and was Sandown’s Greyhound of the month in December last year.
He’ll be up against Jason Thompson’s reigning Sandown Cup winner Next Top Model.