Like many West Australians, race caller Peter O’Neill is eagerly anticipating a huge night of greyhound racing at Cannington this evening, with the finals of the Group 1 Perth Cup (520m) and Group 1 Galaxy (715m) to be run.
Champion Victorian stayer Tornado Tears (pictured) is a red-hot favourite at $1.15 withtab.com.au in the $142,500 Galaxy after he lowered the 715m track record by almost seven lengths in his heat running 41.25sec.
Speaking with Simone Fisher on this morning’s episode of RSN’s Talking Greyhounds, O’Neill said Tornado Tears is capturing the imagination of the West Australian public in similar fashion to former WA stayer Miata.
“Miata was a dual winner of the Galaxy in 2012 and 2013. I can remember her very well on the old Cannington course. If you go back to her second win in the Galaxy the crowd roared and stood in applause for a greyhound, which I hadn’t seen before, and we’re starting to see the same with Tornado Tears. People just wanted to be around him,” he said.
O’Neill added that Tornado Tears, who has been nicknamed Batman because of the markings on his face, was capable of lowering his track record again this evening.
Tornado Tears, trained by Robert Britton throughout his career, is in the care of local trainer Chris Halse for this WA campaign.
Meanwhile, the in-form Orson Allen is a deserved favourite in tonight’s $213,750 Perth Cup, however O’Neill gave an insight into why another Victorian has been heavily backed.
“There has been three runnings of the Perth Cup on the new (Cannington) track and all three of them have come from box one.”
“Hecton Bale has been backed from $26 into $9 on that basis. He’s a very talented chaser. He has won an Australian Cup and over $400,000 in stake money.”
The Galaxy will be run at 10.57pm (Vic time) tonight followed by the Perth Cup at 11.57pm.
Also on today’s show, Simone caught up with Michael Ivers, part-owner and breeder of Tornado Tears, as well as Greyhound Racing South Australia CEO, Matt Corby about the running of last weekend’s first ever Murray Bridge Cup.
