The Addington Raceway totally belonged to GRNZ Hall Of Fame trainer Raymond Harold Adcock for a 40 minute period on Friday evening. During that period the legendary conditioner mentored both Group races decided during the dual code meeting.
Pic: Tom Tee cruising to his Barron’s Supplies South Island Champs victory (pic Dave Robbie)
Tom Tee has always been highly regarded by his trainer – from rearing, breaking in and right through to his emphatic astounding 22.60s Ascot Park 390m qualifying trial winning effort (by a 22 length margin)!
Twenty races later the 82 year old conditioner was making an acceptance speech following Tom Tee’s effortless victory in the $15,000 Barron’s Supplies South Champs at Group 2 level. Effortless – how does handing out a 6.5 length mauling of an absolute quality field, clocking 30.19s on a cool evening sound?
Adcock, along with kennel clients Donald and Jose Arthur bred Tom Tee. The May 2015 whelp is a member of what has turned into a very talented five dog litter being by Fabregas out of Mini’s Fantasy.
Friday’s Group 2 520m event was all over as a paw wrestle when the field approached the first turn. After jumping from the one trap Tom Tee had secured the rails passage by that point. He strongly punched forward, putting a decisive break on his rivals and in doing so he had put the Group 2 event out of reach of his opponents.
All that remained was for the minor placings to be decided. Craig Roberts has qualified four finalists and it was Howie Bale who led the field in the vain chase after the tear away pacemaker. He gamely stuck to his task when holding out the strong late challenge thrown at him by Fair Pippa from the Dave and Jean Fahey kennels by a head margin.
There were just three locally based trainers represented by finalists and fittingly all three trainers was required to attend the post race podium.
Hall OF Fame greyhound trainer Ray Adcock with Barron’s Supplies South Champs winner Tom Tee along with race sponsor Denise Barron and handler Jordan Bryce; runner up Howie Bale and trainer Craig Roberts; third placed Fair Pippa with handler Johnathon Hargrave
“He has always been a good dog – his record going into the race stated that (seven wins from his previous eight races). He always stood out when he was a pup. He broke in brilliantly so it is very satisfying watching and prepared him to develop into a Group race winner, especially having bred him with the Arthur’s,” commented Adcock who co-owns the greyhound with the golfing pair (hence the Tee names) who were up in Canada visiting a daughter.
“Having box one was a bonus and once Tom was front going past the post the first time I knew then the others were in trouble – he is a very strong greyhound. He can go into a Garden City Classic heat (Thursday) next up. Also hopefully he either holds or improves his time for the match race qualifying (Amazing Chase),” added the veteran conditioner who turns 83 next month.
He was also rapt to receive a congratulations call from his good 90 year old mate over numerous decades. “Yes, Max (Mathews) rang me – it was great hearing from him”. He also acknowledged the work carried out his Dunsandel training base by Graham Tapiki, Jordan Bryce and Dan Lane. Together you can expect them to rapidly improve on Tom Tee’s 12 wins, five minor placings and $32,545 in stake earnings he has so far accumulated from just 20 race day outings.
