Queensland’s runners in greyhound racing’s National Championships trialled at Hobart last night.

            Sprint representative Glen Gallon (pictured) trialled brilliantly over the National Sprint Championship course of 461 metres. The Tony Brett trained dog ran a quick 26.06 seconds, and railed hard.

            As a matter of comparison, the quickest time run in the five heats of the Tattsbet National Sprint Championship in Hobart last Thursday was track record holder Bergermeister who ran 26.01.

            Tarlie’s Angel is the Queensland representative in the Wrest Point Casino National Distance Championship. She didn’t go over the full 709 metres trip of the Championship but trialled from the 599 metres boxes. The Bruce Linnan trained bitch went a moderate time of 35.19. It was a very cool evening and hopefully Tarlie’s Angel will derive plenty of benefit from her first gallop on the spacious Hobart track.

            The Tasmanian finals of the Sprint and Distance Championships will be run in Hobart tomorrow night. First and second in each qualify for the group one $75,000 to the winner grand finals in Hobart at the twilight meeting on Saturday week, August 25.

            Already qualified from the mainland states for the National Sprint Championship are Glen Gallon (Qld.), Exclusive One and Oaks Road (NSW), Fabregas (Vic), Aston Thomas (SA) and Uno Reltub (WA).

            Brilliant stayer Miata will represent Western Australia in the National Distance Championship final. Also qualified are Tarlie’s Angel (Qld.), He Knows Uno (NSW), Karanji and Irma Bale (Vic) and Abdon Bale (SA).

            The seven day forecast for Hobart’s weather is for minimum temperatures of between three and five degrees and maximums of between 12 and 14. With the grand finals still eleven days away, there’s unlikely to be a significant rise from those temperature ranges. Rainfall predicted for the next week is very minimal, perhaps up to 10 mm.

            Conditions were somewhat warmer in Townsville last night where the Michael Boody trained Stolen Lollies (Give Me Five – Jillie Bean) scored a strong win from box eight in the RQL Young Guns final over 380 metres.

            Boody, originally from Townsville and now based at Churchable near Ipswich, is eyeing next Tuesday’s heats of the group 3 Townsville Cup over 498 metres.

            The ‘’best eight’’ over the Cup distance last night saw the Brad Belford trained Here’s To You add to his recent Darwin Cup success with another strong win, storming down the outside from midfield before the home turn.

            Nominations for the Townsville Cup heats close tomorrow (Thursday) morning.

           

Story by Paul Dolan, photo by Corey Pearce.