Greyhound Of The Year Returns To The Gardens Tuesday Night
The Gardens will conduct a one off Tuesday night meeting next week, which will be highlighted to the return to racing by the reigning NSW Greyhound of the Year, Take The Kitty.
Owned by a group of lawn bowlers, as their first time foray into greyhound racing ownership, Take The Kitty was given NSW highest honour after winning the Group Three Xmas Gift, one of 13 wins at Wentworth Park last year. He also ran second in the Group One Paws Of Thunder and was favourite for the Melbourne Cup.
Take The Kitty was rated as one of the best eight greyhounds in the Nation, being selected to compete in the Top Gun and the Temlee races, both invitation only Group One events at The Meadows in Melbourne.
The outstanding son of Big Daddy Cool and Our Miss Tilly's is having his first start back after injuring his shoulder in a heat of the world's richest free entry race the Macro Meats Golden Easter Egg at Wentworth Park, which was his second such injury in only a matter of weeks.
But, his champion Lochinvar trainer Ken Cheetham has stated that the star sprinter is over his shoulder problems and is ready to hit the track.
“The initial shoulder that was injured was as good as gold going into the ‘Egg' heat, but he injured the other one. He seems fully over the injuries now and is ready to go.
“I'm going to keep him to the short courses for a while because he can run some slashing times, then we'll look at stepping him up”.
The veteran mentor is realistic about Take The Kitty's racing future, especially after sustaining two injuries in a short space of time, as well as father time creeping up on his kennel star.
“He hadn't had an injury in 18 months of racing, and then did both shoulders. Once they start getting injuries it's hard to keep them going. Hopefully when he does retire from racing he can have a stud career”
Although the end of Take The Kitty's race track career might be near, his septuagenarian trainer is going better than ever saying “I retired a couple of years ago, but that only lasted about a week”
And the punters are very grateful.
Take The Kitty will carry the yellow run in the fourth raced, the Schweppes Stake for open class chasers over the short course 413 metres, with the lips set to fly at 7.57pm AEST.
There are 10 quality races on Tuesday night's card, covered by Sky Racing1, and the best way to catch all the excitement is by being at The Gardens. ‘Edens' restaurant is open with great food at reasonable prices, right on top of the action. Bookings can be made on (02) 49515842.
You can get bet live on all meetings at The Gardens at Sportsbet or Iasbet with the first race of the Tuesday night's program scheduled to kick off at 6.56pm AEST