Andrew Paraskevas reached the coursing summit with dual Waterloo Cup winner Better Than This (2016 & 2017).
And he now has high aspirations for two young ‘acquaintances’ – kennelmates Dash Home and Shake And Treble.
Dash Home and Shake And Treble, who have reached the quarter-finals of the Sylvester Doyle Puppy Championship at Lang Lang on Sunday, should not be ‘forgot’.
Both made their coursing debut last week and are now attempting to win the time-honoured event’s $3765 first prize.
Dash Home meets Flying Surprise (Terrence Erenshaw) who is a litter brother of staying revelation Whatever I Say (G3 Fireball finalist).
Shake And Treble comes up against Mepunga Gertie (Matthew Lanigan) who was third to Jazz Opera in the Bendigo Roses.
Dash Home has also won two races (Horsham & Healesville) from 11 TAB starts.
“I received a phone call from Dash Home’s owner around a month ago asking would I take him if I had a spare kennel,” Paraskevas said. “He won his first start for us at Healesville (July 13).”
Paraskevas added Shake And Treble “hasn’t had much work since coming back from breaking-in”.
“But he’s showing a bit of ability… His dam, Pretty Bomb (winner 2015 Victorian Oaks), is a litter sister of Better Than This.”
A coursing proponent, Paraskevas says it’s “a double-edged sword”.
“We’ve always gone coursing, it’s great for getting greyhounds fit and switched on. In my opinion, they probably pull up better than after a hard circle run.
“They get plenty of time to recover and it’s not as taxing as some people may think.
“Better Than This was booked into GAP, but I just randomly decided to give him a try at coursing, and he developed into a brilliant coursing greyhound.”
A snippet of the action from Lang Lang last Sunday:
A fascinating face-off in a Puppy Championship quarter-final is littermates Sambar Chief (winner Victorian Derby) and St. Marys Panda (winner Victorian Oaks) who are in the Jason Whybrow and Nicole Lummas camp.
The meeting is also highlighted by the Ray Boundy Memorial, which is at semi-finals stage, with the eventual winner receiving $1250.
Much interest surrounds the head-to-head between Nangkari (Dallas Massina) – winner Benalla Cup and Longwood Cup – and American Missile (Nicole Lummas) – runner-up JN Smith Memorial.
Nangkari (5 from 8 on the ‘circle’) was only one length off the Lang Lang track record last week with a blistering 16.34sec ‘slip’.
And American Missile (11 from 44) proved a giant-killer last week defeating Dream Wizard (first coursing loss in two years) and Custom Roof.
A sentimental favourite in the other semi-final is evergreen courser Blue Irish (Marion Clay), who celebrated his fifth birthday in April this year. Amazingly, he was runner-up in the 2018 Sylvester Doyle Puppy Championship.
Meanwhile, the Gippsland Cup is at quarter-finals stage, with a highlight being Dakar (14 from 46) vs Kasemi (6 from 27).
The Gippsland Cup winner will take home $1250.
