Titan Blazer – the greyhound that put Avalon’s “Team Gibbons” on the map in the sport – finally and deservedly ‘broke the ice’ at Group race level on Sunday afternoon.
The four-time Group 1 finalist claimed a $26,000 first prize in the Group 3 Carlin & Gazzard Mount Gambier Cup (512m).
Titan Blazer ($6.00) defeated locals Lochinvar Cahill ($8.50) by 1.5L, with Sister Roberta ($7.50) a further 1L away third in a slick 29.36sec – only 3L off the 29.18sec track record.
His trainer, Daniel Gibbons, also had Yahiro Bale (4th) and Mr. Anderson (8th) in the final. The other Victorian in the event was Wharfie (7th), trained by Shane Richer.
As the field approached the boxes for the final, Daniel and wife Rebecca were queuing with their two daughters – Sophie, 11, and Madison, almost 2 – at Melbourne Airport for a family holiday to Bali.
“It’s a little joke between us that he’s the best $500 dog
going around.”
But there was no way they were going to miss their ‘sentimental favourite’ in action. They watched the race on Daniel’s mobile phone.
Daniel described Titan Blazer’s well-overdue ‘black type’ win as a “happy kind of relief”.
“I was almost convinced it was over once he jumped so well from the ‘yellow’ (Box 5). But you never know what may happen in a race.”
Deep down, Daniel has been desperate to see Titan Blazer win a Group race before he retires.
But being ‘put out to pasture’ is certainly not on Titan Blazer’s immediate agenda.
“He’ll head to the Geelong Cup series, and we’ll just play it by ear from there,” Daniel informed. “He loves racing and if we retired him, he’d go nuts.”
Bred and owned by Lara’s Peter Arnott, Titan Blazer (Nov ’19 Mepunga Blazer x Miss Tron) has won 25 races (with 13 seconds and 10 thirds) from 69 starts and $249,360.
Amazingly, he was ‘sold’ for $500 during pre-training. But fortunately for Arnott, he did a backflip when litter sister Miss Roxy dropped a back muscle after only nine starts.
“She was more than 10 lengths quicker than Titan Blazer,” Daniel exclaimed.
“But Peter had a change of heart on selling after losing her to racing. He just said, ‘I’ll keep him and see how things go’.”
Subsequently Titan Blazer won two of his first three races and has progressed to the finals of last year’s G1 Silver Chief (3rd), G1 Australian Cup (8th), G1 Harrison-Dawson (7th) and G1 Melbourne Cup (4th).
Last year he was also a finalist in the G2 Warragul Cup (7th) and G3 Silver Bullet (3rd). And this year he was runner-up in the Warragul Cup.
“It’s a little joke between us that he’s the best $500 dog going around,” Daniel quipped.
