Robert Britton classes himself as a non-punter. Greyhound training is more than enough, but there is one time of year that he does enjoy a flutter on the dogs and that time is Speed Star and luckily enough tomorrow night is Speed Star night.
Armed with a team of three for The Meadows edition of the Speed Star, Britton isn’t as confident in his team as other years but that isn’t to say he isn’t excited.
The match up that has the greyhound sphere talking is between Britton’s kennel mates Blazing Cartier and Here’s Tears over the 725 metre journey.
TAB have opened Here’s Tears as the $3.50 second elect behind $1.90 favourite Sunset Bourbski in the 725 metre Group 3 Speed Star. The head to head market is leaning heavily in the direction of Here’s Tears at $1.22 over Blazing Cartier at $4.40.
“Blazing Cartier won’t be giving him that much of a head start out of the boxes. She will be working hard with him and is the stronger of the two,” Britton said.
Here’s Tears, Sandown’s 715m track record holder, hasn’t been out of the money in his past five starts which includes an eye catching run over the 600m at The Meadows last start which made him the fastest qualifier for the 600m Speed Star.
“It was a toss of the coin between the 600m Speed Star and 725m Speed Star – I really didn’t know which way to go but he has been a good stayer which is why we went over 725m,” Britton said.
“I didn’t want to come up against Houdini Boy (600m) or Sunset Bourbski (725m), both are very dominant over their distances.”
Britton’s third and final Speed Star contender is Arizona Eyes over the 525 metre distance.
Arizona Eyes was the second fastest qualifier for the Speed Star when clocking an impressive 29.66 seconds in a field after uncharacteristically jumping cleaning from the boxes.
“It was a pleasant surprise seeing him come out like he did because he always flops out of the boxes,” Britton said.
“He is a dog with a motor, you watch races like the Cranbourne Puppy Classic where he came from last to run second against good dogs.”
Arizona Eyes ($1.80) finds himself up against Weblec Ace ($2), who is trained by Rob’s brother Jeff.
Arizona Eyes is on the third line of betting in the Group 3 525m Speed Star behind Catch The Thief ($2.30) and Christo Bale ($2.80).
“I would have rather been put against a speed greyhound rather then a strong one like Weblec Ace,” Britton said.
“It certainly makes it a lot hard to work out a winner when they have similar racing styles.”
How Speed Star night will work:
– Races 7, 8 & 9 to each be made up of 4 x 2-dog match races over 725m, 600m & 525m respectively.
– Matches will be scheduled 7-11 minutes apart.
– Matches are drawn as follows: 1v2; 3v4; 5v6; 7v8.
– Greyhounds to exits box 1 (odd numbers) or box 3 (even numbers), however this won’t necessarily be the case should a reserve gains a start.
– The overall result for each event is determined by the time recorded by each greyhound in the 4 matches.
– Punters also have the option to bet head-to-head in each match, or multi up a few greyhounds to win their head-to-head battles to increase your odds.
