Rockstar Image To End Miss Elly Mint’s Winning Run In Tonight’s Gosford Gold Cup

Written By Kevin Pitstock, Editor & Australian Greyhound Racing Expert Contributor Tuesday 6th January 2009

Rockstar Image has drawn the box to win the $25,000 to the winner Group 2 Woy Woy Poultry Gosford Gold Cup and bring Rob Smith’s imposing run of 12 successive wins with the speedy Miss Elly Mint to an end.

But he won’t have it all his own way, having drawn the wrong side of the track for a wide running greyhound and the Dave Irwin trained Size Can Matter starting from an ideal box eight draw.

The Group 2 Woy Woy Poultry Gosford Gold Cup Box Draw has thrown plenty of interest in to the event with Rockstar Image drawn the “wrong” side of the track for him, Miss Elly Mint crowded in to box three and Size Can Matter drawing well.

Size Can Matter has started just the six times from the pink alley for five wins and easily ran the quickest of the Gosford Gold Cup heats last week running 29.84 beating Seditious by 9 lengths. Adding to Size Can Matter’s chances is the fact that Repeated has drawn the seven box and is noted for “crashing” hard left at box rise and could just give Size Can Matter all the room he needs to move while crowding those inside.

But while Size Can Matter goes in to the race from an ideal draw, Rockstar Image won a new legion of converts last week with a devastating come from behind win to just beat Hendrix and still run a very good 29.99 in winning his heat for Nick and Allan Healey.

As one of the greyhounds we marked early as a rising star of Australian Greyhound Racing, Rockstar Image goes into the race with the Healeys, striving to give “The Rockstar” his first Group Race win.

An inside box may be the biggest concern for the Healey’s though, who would have preferred a wide draw as the son of Big Daddy Cool likes to use a bit of the track, but Rockstar Image is a greyhound that holds his winning form once he finds it.

But the greyhound that punters will start favourite is the Rob Smith trained Miss Elly Mint, who has sent the Hunter Valley greyhound enthusiast’s in to tailspins with a sensational run of twelve consecutive victories.

Having drawn welll in box three, Miss Elly Mint is chasing her thirteenth successive win in the 515m event, but while she won her first ten races in a row by jumping in front, Miss Elly Mint has dwelt slightly and come from behind at win her two most recent starts.

That is some cause for concern for trainer Rob Smith and her supporters in tonight’s event as it would be unlikely she could run down Rockstar Image, and with Repeated crashing over form box seven, it would be unlikely she could gain a clear run to head off Size Can Matter to the first corner should she “miss it” even just a little.

Despite his wide running style Rockstar Image is boxed to gain a nice cart up behind the leaders to the first corner and should prove to strong in the run to the line to beat either Size Can Matter or Miss Elly Mint, depending on which of the two get to the first corner in front and lead to the back.

Group 2 Woy Woy Poultry Gosford Gold Cup Selections