It’s no exaggeration to say Harry Manolitsis has a ‘Midas touch’ when it comes to racing success, these days with greyhounds and previously in the harness code.
Manolitsis has bred, raced and/or trained G1-winning greyhounds Get It Gizmo (2019 Topgun), Moreira (2016 Golden Easter Egg) and Elevated (2018 Sapphire Crown).
He’s also owned champion pacers Young Rufus and Tupelo Rose, both multiple G1 winners, among a host of top-shelf standardbreds.
“I’ve been lucky,” said Manolitsis, modestly playing down his remarkable success.
“I’ve probably won 16 or 17 G1 races in both greyhound and harness racing.
“Young Rufus won seven G1s, including the Victoria Cup, which is like the Cox Plate of harness racing. He was a ripper. Tupelo Rose won six G1s, while Captain Rufus was another champion Grand Circuit horse I owned.”
Greyhound racing is now the focus for Manolitsis, who operates a boutique racing and breeding operation with wife Adean out of suburban Lysterfield South, and despite producing limited litters it appears he may have struck gold once again.
Revolution, a regally bred product of Elevated’s first mating, with champion sire Fernando Bale, made an eye-catching debut in the heats of the Vic Bred Maiden series at Ballarat last Wednesday night, romping home by eight lengths in 25.27sec.
“No. It didn’t surprise me,” Manolitsis said.
“This dog broke in as good as any of my better dogs.
“I pre-trained him and he pre-trained unbelievably. He was a very nice pup right from day one.
“He’s five or six lengths ahead of the other dog I had in the heats, Exhilarate.
“They’re different types of dogs. Revolution is more of a speedy dog – a typical Fernando Bale – while the other fellow throws more to the dam-line and I think will be stronger. He’ll be a 500-600m dog.
“Exhilarate doesn’t have the speed of Revolution and I just put him in the heats for the experience. I didn’t give him any chance at all so I was delighted to see him run second and make the final.”
Revolution is the fastest qualifier for Wednesday night’s final, which is Race 4 at 7.58pm, and despite drawing box five Manolitsis is bullish about his prospects of making it two from two, providing he improves his box manners.
“He needs to begin a lot better,” Manolitsis offered.
“He’s been a good beginner as a rule but he didn’t get the start right last week.
“He missed it ‘two’ but was able to recover quickly and put himself in the race and looked good doing it. If he comes out with them and doesn’t do anything silly I’m sure he’ll run a very nice race.”
Elevated, runner-up in the G2 Shepparton Cup and a G2 Warragul Cup finalist, also has a 13-month-old litter to another super sire in Barcia Bale, while just last weekend she was mated with current superstar Shima Shine.
“I’ve also got a girl from the Fernando Bale litter that goes very nice and sold one to Steve Shinners in WA that’s won in BON at Mandurah (Amplified),” Manolitsis said.
“The Barcia Bales are a beautiful litter. There’s six of them and I’ll train a couple and give the rest out to other trainers. Anthony Azzopardi is rearing them for me so he’ll get a couple.
“I sold half the Barcia Bale litter to a good friend of mine, Andrew Gannell, and sold Revolution to Matthew Ramsden and a group of his mates, who also owned another good dog I trained called Italian Plastic.
“Without being a ‘smarty’, I’ve had a lot of good fortune and success and it gives me a huge thrill to help put a smile on someone else’s face!”
WATCH: Regally bred Revolution (8) makes a sensational debut with a runaway 8L victory in a Vic Bred Maiden heat at Ballarat.
