Cotton Puts Angle Park Into A Whirl Once Again
Wonder Whirl for owner-trainer Christopher Cotton has strung together back-to-back victories for the first time after another dynamite performance on the main Thursday night programme at Angle Park. The diminutive bitch, weighing in at 24 kilograms, is starting to rise as star of the future with slick times and big margins quickly becoming the norm.
Her win last week was the first time she has begun cleanly enough to lead, and her ability to then put down a 12.71 final section saw the margin explode to over fifteen lengths and an overall gallop of 29.67. Proving it was no fluke, she started from box two last Thursday night and forged a way from the second half of the field to score again, this time by four and a half lengths in 29.99. The final section of 12.74 again proves her strength defies her size and it while it would seem logical to step her up over more ground, her efforts over the sprint trips suggest the old saying ‘if it isn't broken, why fix it' may apply.
In seventeen starts to date, Wonder Whirl has been victorious seven times, but has been given a vets' inspection on four occasions after constantly striking interference. She has always shown ability since opening her account with a maiden win in October last year as well as a win at Gawler in 30.89 and three around Angle Park on the Monday meetings (30.33, 30.43, 30.30). With a bit of new found maturity and improving track sense, the daughter of Vapour Whirl and Groovy Sarah is now starting to step up to the big time, and will be winning plenty more races, especially if her improving box manners remain.
However for every winner there are seven losers, and unfortunately the same event saw two consistent ‘bread-and-butter' type dogs suffer injuries and fail to complete the course. Lucerne Lass begun from box one and was well positioned before shortening stride before the left front straight. The black bitch is renowned for her strength and would have been very tough to beat after positioning herself so well. Another 100 metres further on, and Knocka Agogo had found the lead before it too broke stride entering the back straight. Both greyhounds have had excellent careers to date and the best of wishes are sent to trainers, Petar Jovaovic and John Mundy.
Back on a lighter note, and Tony Lagana enjoyed a high-paying night when his talented chaser, Fire Tyson, landed the final Breeders' prelude with a 29.84 run from box two. The field included a high quality collection of young local chasers, including Victa Brooke who took out the first Breeders' Prelude in March. Emerley Lover from the astute Hurley kennels, showed the superior speed down the back and looked the winner with 200 metres to go. However, Fire Tyson gave himself plenty of room in the middle of the track and stormed over the top in a great finish to the nights' feature event.
The tenacious performance is a perfect example of why Fire Tyson is regarding one of the state's most consistent chasers over the past six months and he keeps finding the line first, despite always using plenty of the tight Angle Park circuit. From the highly successful Emerley Carlos-Avid Willow litter which also includes both Avid Tyson and Carlos Tyson, Fire Tyson appears the cream of the crop with a near 50% win record and $60,000 in the bank.
Towards the end of the night, the Free-For-All distance event was run and while it only attracted a reduced field of six, it was ripe with quality as Miss Woods, Kalden Mayhem and Cousin Callum all sought the prize. But this time, Kalden Mayhem retuned to the top of the podium and atoned for his two previous defeats by notching up his 53rd career win. The son of Big Daddy Cool turned four late last year, and at an age where most dogs are enjoying a life of laziness, he is still hard at work winning races – something he obviously loves most.