By Jason Adams
Young trainer Maddison Toner snared her first city win at Sandown Park on Thursday night.
It came courtesy of Dreamers Lie who took out the opening race of the program. Not only was it Toner’s first city class win but also her first at Sandown Park.
“It’s been a long time coming!,” Toner said after the race.
“He hurt his stopper tendon after his first start which resulted in six months off, so to get him back and winning on a Thursday night is great,” she said.
Like a lot of greyhounds after a race, the all-important stop at McDonald’s on the way home was on the agenda.
“He might get the full spread tonight, ice cream, a burger and nuggets,” she said.
Toner, 22, also owns and bred ‘Archie’ who she trains from the property of Glenn Rounds.
“I got my trainers license when I was 19, but I just dabbled with it here and there before I got a little more serious with these guys (Dreamers Lie’s litter). It’s a pretty big investment to breed a litter, so it’s nice to start seeing the results.”
She helps out every day at Rounds’ kennel as well as working three days a week at Walnut Vet Clinic in Cranbourne which makes for a pretty busy lifestyle.
“I’m happy just training two at the moment,” she said.
“With work I think it’d be too hard to train a bigger team. It’s hard enough with these guys.”
Later in the night Providence Bale upstaged star sprinter Tiggerlong Tonk to claim his seventh win on-the-trot. While Tonk was defeated, kennelmate Yozo Bale stood up in the following race to win comfortably.
The standout win of the night was from Jarick Bale who put together an all-round brutal performance. He set hot splits to win in an impressive 33.87 over 595m.
Trainer Mark Delbridge hinted that Jarick Bale could follow in the footsteps of older brother Christo Bale.
The night’s Vic Bred final was won by Time To Roll, or ‘Barry’ as he’s known at home.
In the final event on the card Weblec Eagle was dominant in his first race after 230 days on the sidelines.
His trainer Matt Lanigan expressed his emotion on Twitter after the win – “Could not be prouder of our boy. This is something special!”
