Although considered an outsider when winning his heat at odds of $17.00, Zipping Snoopy is one of the main chances in this Friday night’s TAB Bendigo Cup after his best of the night performance on Sunday.

Although the punters didn’t fancy him in the heats, trainer Peter Dapiran says he wasn’t surprised by the performance (Zipping Snoopy ran 23.682s) because he has seen the quality he has in trials.

“I think people didn’t rate his chances because of the quality field he was up against in his heat,” he said “personally, I wasn’t surprised with the run because I know the times he can go when he trials and the race time was very similar to that.”

“His box manners had been a little poor and his odds probably suited his form.”

Training out of Seymour, Dapiran does most of his pre-training and trialling at Bendigo and Shepparton and believes this may have been one of the reasons Zipping Snoopy (pictured) performed so well in his heat.

“That little bit of local knowledge he had really helped him in the run,” he said “he can sometimes be a little slow out of the boxes but he did all his pre-training work at Bendigo so was comfortable.”

A son of Mantra Lad and Cho Change, Zipping Snoopy is a greyhound bred and reared by the highly respected Martin Hallinan in NSW. It is widely known that Hallinan’s rearing techniques are among the best in the country, if not the world, and the results he has with his greyhounds show that.

Zipping Snoopy is a brother to Group 1 National Derby winner Zipping Brock (also trained by Dapiran) and promising stayer, Zipping Rory (trained by Peter’s daughter Bethany), the breed is characterised by their durability, having strength and speed and being able to perform over all distances.

Peter says that he values the relationship he has with Hallinan and wants to succeed for him.

“Greyhounds that come down from Marty’s (Martin Hallinan’s) come pretty well schooled, you just have to keep them fit and sound and they do the rest for you.”

“It would be great to win another feature race for him.”

The field for the TAB Bendigo Cup (425m) is one full of early speed, making it a difficult race to call. Rob Britton’s Pippa Shiraz is currently favourite at $3.40 from box one, but Zipping Snoopy is right in the market at $5.50 from box three.

Dapiran believes that many of the greyhounds in the field have to rely on their early pace and that only a couple would be able to win it coming from behind – his charge being one of them.

“A lot of the dogs that are in the final are pretty quick early, so I’m just hoping he uses his pace in the early stages to get into a good position and then his strength can come into play.”

“The only other greyhound that’s known for his strength in the race is Warrior King,” he said.

The TAB Bendigo Cup will be held tomorrow night at Lords Raceway in Junourton in what has been described as the ‘Changing of the Guard’ in greyhound racing’s country circuit. The young crop of speedsters contesting tomorrow night’s final will most likely go on to contest more provincial finals throughout the year creating a rivalry akin to that of Black Magic Opal, Paw Licking and Ronan Izmir which characterised the 2013 Country Cup calendar.
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Zipping Brock winning the Group 1 National Derby at The Gardens
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Zipping Snoopy’s Bendigo Cup Heat win
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