Australia Day celebrations started a day early for Butterwick owner-trainers Michael and Jodie Manuel when Cop A Chevy won the Club Maitland City Australia Day Cup at Maitland Greyhounds.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
With the Australian flag flying over Maitland Showground last Thursday as patrons enjoyed a feed of freshly made cream lamingtons, Cop A Chevy lived up to his $2.60 favouritism tag and led throughout to win the 400m final from box three in 22.33 seconds.
Jodie had the honours of leading out the son of Kinloch Brae and Cop A Sling and he improved on his second from last week’s heats to beat the Garry Kedwell-trained Braeman by two and a quarter lengths with Ron Bell’s Miss Vee third.
The Australia Day Cup meeting attracted a good crowd, which included a number of Club Maitland City directors, staff and patrons.
Club Maitland City CEO Ian Martin presented the Australia Day Cup to Jodie and congratulated her on a great win, saying it made his afternoon as he backed Cop A Chevy and also landed the first four, which paid $131.40.
Long road trip pays dividends
Queensland trainer Darren Russell’s long road trip to Maitland for the Australia Day Cup meeting paid big dividends with two firsts, a second and a 400m track record.
Precious Sal, a daughter of El Grand Senor and Surin’ Sal, clocked 21.87s in the Old Maitland Inn Stakes to smash the 21.98s set by Winsome Jacko back on October 23, 2014.
Precious Sal reeled off an impressive 5.28s first section and exploded around the bend with a 15.35s second section and a 6.52s run home to set up the track record run.
Thursday’s victory took Precious Sal’s record to nine wins, five seconds and one third from 20 starts for $17,564 prizemoney.
Interestingly, each of her nine wins have been in best-of-day times.
Russell enjoyed his second win with Go Lassie Go, a litter sister to Precious Sale, in the fourth and fifth grade Q Function Centre @ Club Maitland City Stakes over 400m.
Another of his runners Burrum Starsky finished second behind Leggy Blonde in the Club Maitland City Boxing Gym Stakes over 450m to make it a profitable afternoon.
Best wishes to Cliff Clark
Best wishes go out to Greta trainer Cliff Clark who is in hospital and couldn’t be at Maitland on Saturday night to watch his promising young greyhound Smile Good win the Ladbrokes Cash In Stakes over 400m.
Cliff’s wife Cathy was trackside to oversee the preparations of the son of Fabregas and Teenage Dream and he didn’t disappoint with a 22.75s performance to bring up his fourth win from six starts.
Get well Cliff and we hope to see you back at the track soon.
Two meetings at Maitland
Maitland races again this Thursday afternoon and will also host another meeting transferred from Ladbrokes Gardens on Saturday night.
Thursday’s racing will feature heats of the Commercial Painting Group Trophy over 450 metres, with winners progressing to a $2000 final on February 8.