Winner in relaxed mode

By David Nagel
MYSTIC Apple made it consecutive country cup wins when showing amazing versatility to drop back in distance and claim the Cranbourne Cup (520m) on Sunday.
Just 20 days after winning the Group One Sale Cup (650m) on Boxing Day, the Val Awramenko-trained Mystic Apple dropped back to sprinting and led all the way to win Cranbourne greyhound racing’s premier event in a smart 30.39sec.
Awramenko told in the days leading up to the $40,000 to-the-winner Cranbourne Cup how Mystic Apple boasted an extremely relaxed nature, and that came to the fore pre-race as greyhounds were held up at the boxes for several minutes before being loaded into the traps.
“Nothing bothers him”, Awramenko revealed. “He has an incredibly calm nature.”
Mystic Apple, who is trained in the Geelong region, took his record to 26 wins from just 57 starts, and he has now won $191,000 in prize money.
Earlier in the night, the Len Ketelaar-trained Granduer won the $12,000 to-the-winner Victoria Cup (699m).
Also making headlines on the night was boom sprinter Heston Bale, who won by an amazing 20 lengths in the sensational time of 29.96sec over the 520m.
This was some seven lengths faster than Mystic Apple.
“That is the fastest time run at this track in at least two years”, said Cranbourne GRC Manager Tony Wright.
“It is very rare that greyhounds break 30 seconds over the 520m distance here.”
Heston Bale narrowly missed out on gaining a start in the Cranbourne Cup final, being allocated first reserve after running second in his heat.
However Wright said that the budding superstar would not have necessarily beaten Mystic Apple had he got a start in the Cup.
“Heston Bale beat a much easier field tonight and was allowed to go straight to the lead.
“Without taking anything away from what was a brilliant performance, if he was in the Cup he probably would have been at the tail of the field early on and would most likely have found interference,” Wright said.