When the heats for the SEN 1116 Healesville Cup were released, leading Victorian trainer Kel Greenough was second-guessing his decision to target the Group 3 feature with lightly-raced talent Friday Frothies.
Friday Frothies hadn’t raced since May 19 due to injury; however despite a concerning lack of recent racing and overall experience the normally conservative Greenough decided to throw the former Tasmanian in at the deep end.
And punters should have taken the astute mentor’s free tip.
As if resuming in elite company wasn’t daunting enough, Friday Frothies was drawn in by far the toughest of last Sunday’s six Cup heats, where his opposition included course record holder Peter Galo, recent winner of the inaugural National Straight Track Championship at Healesville.
“Realistically there were five quality dogs in the race and I was thinking how did I get stuck in that heat?” Greenough laughed.
“He’s had a couple of serious injuries; he fractured a metatarsal bone and then sprained two wrists. I started wondering if the dog was going to make it.”
Greenough’s gamble paid off when Friday Frothies, a $23.50 outsider, finished best in a thrilling blanket finish, defeating Myrniong And All ($8.60) and odds-on favourite Peter Galo ($1.60) in a best of day 19.94s.
WATCH: Friday Frothies through the head on vision from box eight.
Friday Frothies claimed his fifth win from just eight career starts courtesy of a training masterclass from Greenough, who plotted an unconventional ‘course’ (pun intended) to Healesville with his injury prone prospect.
“Because of his injury issues I wanted to give him the safest run possible so I went down to Lang Lang for a coursing trial,” Greenough explained.
“I can’t remember the last time I went coursing but I figured it was the best thing for the dog.
“I was keen to give him a run behind a drag lure, which seems to spark them up, and the run-off also made it a good option because the dog pulls up hard onto his wrists.
“After his run, one of the locals said to me do you know how fast that was and I replied that I had no idea because I’ve never been here before!
“He was only about a length off the record and the track was pretty average too.”
Friday Frothies is an $8 chance from box four with TAB to give Greenough a third Healesville Cup title, with the Pearcedale mentor having gone back-to-back in 2014 and 2015 with Frosty Jay Jay and Allkel To Excel respectively.
“Friday Frothies went the quickest in the heats but there was only a very small margin between the first three or four in his heat,” Greenough said.
“He’s drawn the middle and the speed is in one (Startron), seven (Emerald Rainbow) and eight (Myrniong And All) so he’s going to need luck getting a run through.
“He’s not quick early but runs on hard so he’s going to need a clear run when he goes for it.”
A well-bred son of Barcia Bale and Miss Hetti, Friday Frothies is closely related to Greenough’s 2012 Group 1 Hume Cup winner Jethro,
