It was a thoroughly deserved Group 1 New Zealand Oaks quinella for leading Sydney-based owner and breeder Stuart Dickinson after he had previously bred and owned numerous New Zealand Oaks minor place getters. His greyhounds Cawbourne Taber and Cawbourne Krusty combined to dominate the running of Thursday’s $45,420 The Fitz Sports Bar New Zealand Oaks over 520m at the Addington Raceway.
Pictured: Cawbourne Taber delivering her New Zealand Oaks victory over her kennelmate Cawbourne Krusty (pic Dave Robbie)
It was also real deserved training success for Marton conditioner Matt Roberts who had also mentored two other Dickinson Cawbourne prefixed greyhounds into second in this Blue Ribbon event.
Cawbourne Taber won the race start from the two trap and that turned into being the decisive tactic as she was never headed at any stage after that. The red racing vest worn by Hilton Forabet took up a handy early forward position for her trainer Ashely Bradshaw, while also being prominent early on was the Ray Adcock prepared Invincible Sue and Bigtime Mia for Lisa Cole. Race favourite Cawbourne Krusty was in close attendance to this group.
Streaming down the back straight it was all Cawbourne Taber who was doing pace work in front of the field. Cawbourne Krusty had improved her field position to lead the chase after her, while Hilton Forabet was still racing generously along the rail.
Cawbourne Taber had inflicted the damage on her rivals when she undertook the pace making duties and she maintained her strong gallop to take the Group 1 title by a half length margin in 30.52s. Cawbourne Krusty rapidly closed the gap on her half-sister but she had left herself too much territory to reclaim. The sire for both girls is the millionaire greyhound Dyna Double One, who is a litter brother to the 2015/2016 NZ Greyhound of the Year Dyna Vikkers.
Hilton Forabet certainly didn’t flinch on her task and she was rewarded with her third placing another 3.25 lengths astern, while she held off the strong finish that the Steve and Bonnie Evans trained Goldstar Marvely delivered by a head. There was also further reward for Hilton Forabet as her placing saw her being the first Kiwi bred greyhound to complete the Group 1 event, therefore this daughter of the star greyhound Above All and Jinja Cookie was awarded with the $1,000 Breeders’ bonus payment.
The Fitz Sports Bar New Zealand Oaks winner Cawbourne Taber with her trainer Matt Roberts; Matt is joined by his sister Melissa and mum Di, along his partner Sarah Clausen with runner up Cawbourne Krusty; Pete Seque undertook the handling duties for the third placed Hilton Forabet
“I’m over the moon with the quinella by the Cawbourne girls and especially for Stu (Dickinson). Actually I was watching Cawbourne Krusty at the start, then after seeing her being slow I quickly scanned forward to see Cawbourne Taber in front, so I started watching her knowing that she was an improved greyhound. Then I saw Cawbourne Krusty working into second and thought then it would turn into a close finish. It did!
“I couldn’t have achieved this result without the continued firepower that Stu provides my kennel. That ammunition he supplies via his quality greyhounds is the key to our success. It was also a huge help that Sarah (Clausen, partner) stayed at home to look after our other dogs which allowed me to come back down here early to put the polish on the Oaks girls down here at Dads place (Craig),” said Roberts junior.
Cawbourne Taber, along with Cawbourne Krusty will now head straight into the 520m heats of another Group 1 Classic Age series, the New Zealand Futurity at the Hatrick Raceway this Friday evening. She’ll be looking to add to the $29,878 in stake earnings she has won too date being the result of five wins and three minor placings from her 15 career races.
There was a number of other handy performances seen during the Group 1 support card. Here’s a pictorial run down on those events.
It was a blanket finish to start the evening which saw the Ashley Bradshaw trained Black Tori (left) dead heating for the win with Justin Ryan from the Steve and Bonnie Evans kennels in the C3 295m dash; Midnight Bolt was next up for Calum Weir when he took out the C4 295m sprint
Fiery Affair maintained his current strong run of winning form by winning his C3 295m sprint for Jason Dunn; John McInerney struck in the next C3 dash with Seeking Baxter, seen here with Jonathon McInerney; Opawa Waihemo jumped into the race 5 C4 295m field from off the reserves bench to land his win for the Opawa Racing team and trainer Robin Wales; Dave and Jean Fahey dropped Shallay Pallay back to sprinting which turned into a winning move as seen by his open class 295m win, seen here with handler Katie Wylie
Shreddin’ prevailed in a tightly contested finish in the 645m event for the Fahey’s; Craig Roberts produced Allen Adrian to take out the C2 520m race; it was a deserved win for the Steve and Bonnie Evans trained Goldstar Aston when he won his C3 520m race; It was Craig Roberts again in race 11 when he mentored the promising Dyna Dave to his C4 520m victory; the evening concluded with Rosemary Blackburn tasting success with her open class 295m sprinter Danzinger (last two pics Dave Robbie). Naturally with it being The Fitz Sports Bar New Zealand Oaks meeting, the Christchurch GRC dressed up their new podium with a female NZ Oaks theme
By Peter Fenemor
