Peter The Best will be ‘Peter the Great’ if he reigns supreme in the $21,000 Highway 31 Maiden Challenge final (300m) – Race 3, 11.52am – at Healesville on Sunday.
Trained at Strathtulloh (10km from Melton) by Chris Darminan, Peter The Best – named in respect of his ‘educator’ Peter Gavin – ruled with authority on race debut with a slick 16.59sec (Best) heat win.
Darmanin describes Peter The Best (Nov ’20 Barcia Bale x Sillat) as a “fluke dog”.
“Peter (Gavin) called me out of the blue to inform Peter The Best’s Pakistani owner, Imran Arshad, was looking for a trainer.
“Coincidentally, I had to pick up a ‘breaker’ from Pete and had a spare kennel, so I took him on. I was in the right place at the right time.”
A part-time cleaner at Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club (his dad, Emmanuel, has held the contract for 43 years), Darmanin stands to collect a $15,000 winner’s cheque if Peter The Best ‘serves up an ace’ in the final.
And Darmanin says his 50 per cent of the prize would help with the concreting of a kennel complex he plans on building once his family moves into a new home at Kurumjang in March next year.
“It would also be a real kick on for me as I lost a potential topliner, Blistering Bro, in February last year,” he added.
Darmanin admits he wasn’t overly confident when Peter The Best lined up for his first start last week.
“He had trialled okay two weeks earlier, but he was ‘locked up’ until Race 10 and I thought he’d only run a place.
“And it’s going to be harder in the final… It won’t be easy, especially from box seven. I’d prefer him drawn in the middle.”
Peter The Best ($3.50) is on the second line of TAB’s fixed odds market, behind Royal Mint ($2.50) – trained by Jason Thompson – which showed plenty of ‘currency’ as a debutante, clocking an impressive 16.61sec. (She’s a younger full sister to former star Aussie Secret, which was also trained by Thompson.)
Next in betting was another first starter, Mr. Dramatic ($5.50) – prepared by Brett Mackie – which posted a smart 16.65sec. Other heat winners were Belair Cruzer (16.75sec) and Save Your Tears (17.01sec).
Darminan, who won the 2008 Group 1 Laurels with Hybrid Theory, has long dabbled with just a small team of greyhounds.
He served an ‘apprenticeship’ with legendary Tasmanian trainer Ted Medhurst from 2001-03 and will always consider him a mentor.
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And he continually receives invaluable advice from his uncle, John Barbara, who currently trains Healesville 300m track record holder, Kepal.
“I work my dogs at John’s every morning. He has two galloping yards and a 200-metre straight track on his Exford property,” Darmanin said.
A staunch family man, Darmanin married in 2012 and has two children – Shaniya, 7, and Sienna, 4 – with wife Natalie whose father, Victor Pace, and brother, Joe Pace, are harness racing participants. (Natalie is a full-time portrait and outdoors photographer.)
“Shaniya is right into greyhound racing and has a ‘dog of her own’,” said Darminan proudly.
“My family race Meet In Ibiza, which I paid $2500 for as a pup, under the Dance Monkey syndicate. Yes, Shaniya is a fan of Tones And I.”
WATCH: PETER THE BEST (B4) lives up to his racing moniker in a Highway 31 Maiden Challenge heat.
