Victorian greyhound participants are eagerly awaiting the pending decision by the Greyhound Racing Victoria (GRV) board in relation to the allocating of the recently approved stake money increase. Participants were given the opportunity of providing their input via an online survey which closed on Tuesday evening, with a number of options suggested by GRV. One area that does need addressing in our belief is the payment of stake money for 4th placing, at the moment in Victoria it is zero across every race. It seems strange that the punter can win financially on a greyhound running 4th via a first 4, but the trainer of this dog receives zero dollars for his efforts. Most of the other states already do pay for 4th, so this seems an ideal chance for Victoria to follow suit and further reward participants.
The highlight of racing tonight is the final of the Molly Campbell Silver Dollar at Albion Park and it appears to be a very open race with all greyhounds some chance, so finding the winner looks near on impossible. Unfortunately covid driven border restrictions have decimated the nominations for the Group 3 South Australian Oaks and Derby, with both events only attracting two heats each tonight at Angle Park. Just the one interstate entry appears, well down on other years where normally four heats of each event has been the normal. What this does do however, is provide the local dogs with every chance of taking out both events, again something that has been rare in recent history. Sandown Park in Victoria continues to race in the afternoon/twilight time slot, due to the 8pm curfew remaining in place in metropolitan Melbourne. Hopefully this will change in the near future as it doesn’t seem quite right not having Sandown on our screens on a Thursday night. We think we have identified some nice value for punters tonight, and our tipping form has been very rewarding for followers in recent times, so fingers crossed that form can continue tonight.
Albion Park Race 1 No 8 Rose Keeping $3.40 at PlayUp – Formerly trained in New South Wales but recently transferred to the strong Selena Zammit kennels. Form has been very patching of late but her win at Dubbo from this box in early June was outstanding, winning by 13 lengths in fast time. A repeat of that run will see her winning here.
Angle Park Race 2 No 4 She’s A Hotshot $2.20 at PlayUp – Only defeated once in her four race starts to date, with all wins in fast time. These wins were over the shorter distances so this is her first try at 530 metres, but the speed she has shown will ensure she holds a very big lead at the half way point. She is in a strong kennel so we expect she will be well conditioned to get the extra journey.
Dapto Race 3 No 2 Tarawi Ted $2.50 at PlayUp – Showed enough last week, when winning here, to let us believe he will win much better races. He was slow out and copped a couple of bumps, but continued to chase hard in very wet conditions to win clearly in the line. This field does not look too much stronger and we think he will be well suited by the inside draw better than the wide draw of last week.
Warrnambool Race 10 No 5 Spare Bullet $2.50 at PlayUp – Excellent run here last week when a close up second in good time. Previous to that, he had recorded a very nice win in fast time at Ballarat. Generally a good beginner so the middle box is of no real concern and this field does not have a lot of depth. He is our best of the night, and your banker for all your multi bets tonight.
Albion Park Race 9 No 1 Mrs Sing $3.10 at PlayUp – Veteran galloper who has a very good record from the rails draw. Always races well on this track in the past and despite stepping back up in distance we think she looks the winner. The last 40 metres may be a case of hold your breath but the inside should allow her to have established a winning break in the first half of the event.
