Greyhound Racing Victoria’s Ready 2 Race Sales took place at Bendigo today, with purchasers turning out in their hundreds in search for their next racetrack star.
Having raced in heats with up to three other competitors on Monday, greyhounds competed in six-dog fields from midday today before the auction, which kicked off at 3pm.
The top selling greyhounds on the day were All Bling (Lot 16) and Johnny Wishbone (Lot 133), who were purchased for $20,900 and $20,500 respectively.
Experienced participant David Torr, who purchased All Bling, said it was a credit to Victorian greyhound racing and the Bendigo Greyhound Racing Association that the event has been a success since it began in 2012.
“I’m a big advocate of the Ready 2 Race concept because you can buy a dog that you can see go around and run reasonable time, and in many cases it is racing in a couple of weeks,” said Torr, who is a publican at the Railway Hotel in Eaglehawk.
“I’ve bought a number of dogs from the R2R Sales over years including Turbine, who I paid about $26,000 for and won a maiden series with so I got my money back. I’ve bought two or three greyhounds nominated by Paul Bartolo, and last year I bought Zelemar Roo, who I’ve had 12 months of good racing with and he has won at Sandown and The Meadows for me.”
Buyers invested $322,600 on the day, purchasing 74 greyhounds at an average price of $4,359 per dog, up on the average sale price of $4,284 in 2016.
Twelve greyhounds were passed in today and were returned to connections.
Pictured above: All Bling winning his final and later with Jennifer Torr, wife of new owner David Torr.
KEY INFO ON THE TWO HIGHEST PURCHASES…
LOT 16 – ALL BLING
Purchase price: $20,900
December ’15 My Bro Fabio – Lollipop Bling
Breeder: Carol Westerlo
Nominator: Carol Westerlo
Record: Unraced
R2R Heat: Ran 2nd to Star Hunter (23.793sec) beaten 4.25 lengths WATCH
R2R Final: Ran second to Shady Tex (23.949sec) beaten 1.25 lengths WATCH
Purchaser David Torr said: “He ran home fairly hard behind Shady Tex in his final today and I think if the race was much further he may have caught him. He did the same in his heat when running second again in fast time but making up ground late. From what I’ve seen My Bro Fabio puts strength into his pups and the Westerlo line is also very strong. With the Westerlos based on the other side of Melbourne I doubt whether All Bling would have been to Bendigo prior to the Ready 2 Race series. Some of the greyhounds for sale today would have been to Bendigo a lot, and some would even have been educated there, so there isn’t necessarily the same amount of improvement left in those dogs. How much experience a greyhound has had at Bendigo is one of the things I look for.”
LOT 133 – JOHNNY WISHBONE
Purchase price: $20,500
December ’15 Fernando Bale – Come On Luann
Breeder: Wallace Heras
Nominator: George Borg
Record: 3 starts 2-1-0
R2R Heat: Ran 2nd behind Shady Tex in 23.778sec (Best), beaten four lengths. WATCH
R2R Final: Won in 24.219sec WATCH
Purchaser Brian Hodgson said: “I was bidding on behalf of one of my owners, Brett Dowler and that was basically as high as we were prepared to bid for him. The thing we liked about him was that he has proven form over 500m with a couple of wins at Bendigo over that distance. We did our homework on the breeding side of things as well and there are a lot of city winners in his bloodline and some of his littermates look pretty handy types as well.”
