It was a tough day at the office at the Cambridge Raceway on Thursday afternoon with steady rain falling throughout the meeting. The slushy track conditions didn’t affect the racing action whatsoever which featured the running of the $7,500 NZRS Novice final. The feature event for the New Zealand bred lower graded greyhounds saw local trainer Karen Walsh helping herself to her second training feature win for the week.
Pictured: Thrilling Roar seen here after his Cambridge NZRS Novice heat second
After mentoring her classy chaser Thrilling Talk to victory in Monday’s Group 2 $28,000 Total Bodyshop Supplies North Island Challenge Stakes win, Walsh then produced the quinella in Thursday’s NZRS Novice 457m final on her home track.
Thrilling Roar had shown promise in only a handful of races when heading into this NZRS series, although his races was characterized by making slow race starts. It was much better start that this nicely bred son of Fernando Bale and Thrilling Ella made and that enabled him to settle handier to the pace than what he previously had been.
Thrilling Roar railed underneath the pace making Tom Paton prepared Shozip Boomer (Show The Money – Zipping Lucy) when turning in for run home. Sitting outside them was Thrilling Audrey, while the Arch Lawrence trained and bred Fast Archer - Trilise litter mates Stefano and Zoro were racing just in behind the pace.
Thrilling Roar relished racing through the slush and he extended strongly to nail his feature race victory by a 1.5 length margin, clocking 26.41s with his time being more of a reflection of the rain affected track. As commentator Peter Earley said in his postrace wrap, “Man, those are real tough conditions out there today.”
Stefano extended stylishly along the rail and he was holding second just short of the line, however Thrilling Audrey punched home solidly and it was this daughter of Fabregas and Thrilling Quest who snatched the runner up prize by a head over a game Stefano, while his brother and kennelmate Zoro wound up in fourth a further 3.25 lengths astern.
Thursday’s Cambridge NZRS Novice place getters (from left) runner up Thrilling Audrey; third placed Stefano and fourth place Zoro (pics are from the heats as owing to poor weather, there were no pics available from the final)
It was another meticulous result for the Tirau training and breeding based team, which comprises the nation’s leading strike rate trainer Karen Walsh and who is ably assisted by Taylor Thornton and the recently UK returned Sophie Whittaker.
Gary and Linda Harding have been to the forefront of the “Thrilling” operation for many, many years and this NZRS result is justified and deserved reward for the quality breeding program they have in place.
By Peter Fenemor
