Sprint champ’s grand moment

By Paul Pickering
SANDOWN Park punters last week witnessed the rise of the country’s best sprinter and, arguably, its best stayer on one remarkable night of greyhound racing.
Sale sprint ace El Grand Senor overcame a sluggish start to make a one-dog race of the $250,000 Melbourne Cup, leaving his owner, trainer and breeder Carolyn Jones to field questions about her 39kg giant’s place among Australia’s greyhound greats.
Jones, whose $1.70 chance was the shortest-priced favourite in the Cup’s 55-year history, was too overawed by the achievement to comment.
“I just feel like the luckiest girl in the world right now to have such a fantastic dog,” she said. “I’m absolutely thrilled.”
El Grand Senor began from box two and was headed by Dee Winter on his inside, but sliced through brilliantly to take the lead at the first turn.
He looked invulnerable from down the back and powered away for a six-length win – in 29.55 seconds – from Symmetry and third-placed Dee Winter.
Jones later admitted to a gasp of anguish as her champ left the boxes, but praised the dog for a gutsy recovery.
The win – a third Group 1 triumph and 23rd victory in 29 starts – was marred only by the fact that the dog’s true owner, Jones’s niece, Kya Wood, couldn’t be trackside to witness it.
“She’s eight years old and picked (El Grand Senor) out on the day he was born,” Jones said. “Unfortunately she couldn’t make it tonight and was pretty upset.”
Still, Jones was quick to douse speculation that El Grand Senor might soon retire to a lucrative stud career, so young Kya is sure to get another chance.
El Grand Senor, which now boasts over $425,000 in prize-money, will now be set for next month’s Group 2 Ballarat Cup.
Meanwhile, Pearcedale-trained So Seductive pressed her claim to top billing among Australia’s champion stayers after dominating last Thursday night’s other Group 1 feature, the Bold Trease Carnival Cup (715m).
Despite tiring late on her way to a 1.5-length victory over Graeme Bate’s evergreen Jarvis Bale, New South Wales-bred So Seductive never looked like surrendering her unbeaten record at the Lightwood Road circuit.
Trainer Kel Greenough, who has worked wonders with the bitch since her move south six months ago, said he was delighted that his dog could perform in such elite company.
Greenough admitted to “an error in judgement” by entering So Seductive in this month’s 515m sprint Shootout, but, after a brilliant win in the recent Group 2 Sir John Dillon Memorial, is now justified in hailing his bitch as the in-form stayer in the land. “I suppose today she is the best stayer in the country, because she’s won her last two distance races, but you quickly lose your mantle when you get beaten,” he said. “It’s been a good ride so far and we just hope it keeps going.”