Coburg East’s Murray and Kristie Collyer received a fair ‘chunk’ of the honours on a classic day of coursing at Lang Lang on Sunday.
The father-and-daughter team took out the 147th Victoria Derby with Rothwell Chunk and Benalla Cup with Kasemi – worth $4000 and $1000 to the winner respectively.
Meanwhile, Golden Square’s Dallas Massina snared the 147th Victoria Oaks with Kyanna – also carrying a $4000 first prize.
The conclusion of the Victoria Derby and Victoria Oaks was held under a beautiful blue sky. The perfect contrast to the horrendous conditions for Week 1.
In two very tight courses for the classic finals, we saw a half-length win from Rothwell Chunk (Murray Collyer) over a very game Demon Flyer (Alan Meyer) in the Derby.
Demon Flyer was only a quarter of a length down at halfway and tried his heart out, but a very strong Rothwell Chunk was just too powerful and pulled away for a narrow win.
Victoria Oaks winner KYANNA with Chelsi and Dallas Massina.
The victory gave Murray his first Derby win in over 30 years of coursing and the smile could not be wiped from his face.
The Oaks saw another massive clash with Kyanna (Dallas Massina) taking the whole course to run down a very brave Desperate Moment (Andrew Paraskevas) to win by a head.
In one of the closest finishes to the Oaks in years, Kyanna was just a little too strong.
The litter, trained and owned by Dallas, had three ‘girls’ make the semi-finals, but Desperate Moment ensured it wouldn’t be an all-Massina final and gave us a final to remember.
The Derby Consolation also saw some very classy young gallopers, with Hunter Grange (Delaine Vigor) just proving a little too strong for Cold That Night (Andrew Paraskevas).
Owner Larrah Vigor was elated and could be seen giving her favourite dog lots of love post-race.
WATCH: ROTHWELL CHUNK defeats DEMON FLYER in the Victoria Derby.
The Oaks Consolation was another cracking duel between Rolling Free (William Lambert) and Oolana (Dallas Massina), with Rolling Free pulling away late to give ‘Team Lambert’ the win. Both ‘young girls’ will be worth keeping an eye on for features later in the year.
The other two features were the Benalla Cup and the Ebby Jet Power – Come at Me Girls event.
The Benalla Cup final saw two of our best female coursers in Kasemi (Kristie Collyer) and Madam Maximus (Julia Creed) going head-to-head.
In what was another fantastic course the pair was near level at halfway, but Kasemi was just a little too strong in the run home to take a narrow win.
In doing so, Kasemi reaffirmed her title as Victoria’s leading coursing greyhound and won herself a custom Hidez suit donated by Benalla Coursing Club.
WATCH: KASEMI defeats MADAM MAXIMUS in the Benalla Cup.
Both ‘girls’ will be contenders going forward and we can’t wait for the next course between these two.
The final feature event was the all-female Ebby Jet Power – Come at Me Girls event, which saw Gotham Diva (Melanie Lithgow) against Aston Jive (Simon Mallia).
While their semi-final times were near identical, the third run proved a little too much for Aston Jive, with the rock-hard fit Gotham Diva pulling away for a comfortable win and the chance to take home an Ebby Jet Power breeding straw. Thank you to Ebby Greys for sponsoring this event.
Also, a big congratulations to Acclaimed (John Taylor), Deltoid (Stephen Tabb), Spirit World (Chris Tilley) and Madam Magnus (Julia Creed) which all won their first coursing event and broke their maidens.
Thank you to Lang Lang and its volunteers on hosting a wonderful event and for taking the photos. The next event is this Sunday at Longwood with the Slips to Boxes (at Shepparton) being the feature… We will see you all then!
Compiled by National Coursing Association of Victoria joint secretary – Sean Lithgow.
