Pakenham South stalwart Geoffrey Scott-Smith, 73, heads to Benalla’s Victorian Derby and Victorian Oaks coursing qualifiers tomorrow with a six-strong ‘puppy’ contingent – all out of an Oct ’19 Barts OutOfMyWay x Dundee Calypso mating.

Scott-Smith has four entrants in the Derby series (Dundee Trigger, Dundee Raider, Dundee Reactor and Dundee Twister) and two hopefuls in the Oaks series (Dundee Cotton and Dundee Velvet).

“It will be a day out for them – a bit of competition. They’re a little bit young for the ‘circle’,” he said. “I’ve started a few dogs on the coursing and it’s done them the world of good.”

Scott-Smith added his young team had trialled – including coming out of the ‘slips’ – up Lang Lang’s coursing straight track in preparation for the prestigious Derby and Oaks – both time honoured coursing classics.

“Dundee Cotton was the quickest by around one and a half lengths, and there was only a half-length between three of the dogs,” he said. “I’m sticking my neck out, but I fancy Dundee Twister as a coursing dog.”

“It will be a day out for them – a bit of competition. They’re a bit young for the ‘circle’. I’ve started a few dogs on the coursing and it’s done them the world of good.”

Scott-Smith’s ‘coursing novices’ dam, Dundee Calypso, contested three G1 distance events and raced on 72 occasions for 15 wins, 12 seconds and four thirds with $124,360 in prizemoney.

And their American sire, Barts OutOfMyWay, won around 50 races in the US. “I was lucky enough to get a couple of straws,” Scott-Smith said.

A coursing proponent, Scott-Smith says, “it’s a nice, relaxed day out”. “We’re not racing for ‘sheep stations’, it’s a friendly environment.”

Scott-Smith trained greyhounds from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s before a long hiatus due to family and work commitments. He returned to the sport in 2010.

He raced champion stayer Vanadium in the late ’70s, who he says held four track records and won over 30 races, and more recently three-time G1 winner Dundee Osprey.

He won the Harrison-Dawson, Topgun and Sale Cup (all in 2016) and was runner-up in the 2017 G1 Sandown Cup and a finalist in the 2016 G1 Adelaide Cup (4^th) and 2017 G1 Rookie Rebel (5^th).

Dundee Osprey ‘cut his teeth’ in coursing, competing in the Victorian Derby and Sylvester Doyle Puppy Championship series in 2015. And Scott-Smith says coursing was the “making of him”.

Pawnote: Tomorrow’s Derby and Oaks events will be complemented by the Werribee Cup (winner $1100) and JN Smith Memorial (winner $825).

BATTLE OF BENALLA
One of the most anticipated coursing clashes of the year will take place at Benalla tomorrow when star of the circle Bound To Succeed (3rd Ballarat Cup), who is unbeaten in coursing, takes on 2020 Waterloo Cup winner Making Gravy in the first round of the Werribee Cup. Who are you tipping?