Greyhound meeting proves big winner

The $6000 Life Members Wairarapa Cup, feature event at the Wairarapa Greyhound Racing Club's highly-successful TAB meeting at Solway Showgrounds on Tuesday was a thrilling affair in more ways than one.
Not only did it provide a stirring contest but it was won by Tirau visitor Thrilling Guy whose track sense from the outside trap played a huge part in his success.
A noted railer, Thrilling Guy accelerated up on the outside of the leading division going into the first turn and as the gaps opened he cut cleverly across to the rail and was actually trailing the pacemaker Isa Dusty down the back straight.
From there it was just a matter of waiting for his paralysing finishing burst to take full effect, and he romped away over the closing stages to win by more than three lengths.
Trained by Karen Walsh for the country's most prolific owner, Gary Harding, Thrilling Guy was having his first look at Solway, but the manner in which he handled the turning track suggested he could have been there all his life.
"He's a real thinker???he uses his brain to get out of trouble," Walsh said. "He just loves the rail and he always seems to work out a way to get there, he's the perfect race dog really".
Northern visitors were also second and third in the Cup with Ridley Reason from the Craik kennels in Drury rushing home for second after settling in midfield, and In Defence from the Schofield kennels at Rangiriri battling away for third after being handy all the way.
Close up fourth was the only local in the line-up, Isa Dusty, who assumed her favourite front running role early in the piece and fought on bravely when challenged.
The other feature event on a 15-race card was the Seeds and Cereals Maiden Distance raced over the testing 763m and it was won in stunning fashion by yet another of the northern raiders, Angel of Harlem, trained by Tom McGillvray from Tokoroa.
She was well off the pace early, but stormed past her rivals going into the last 200m as if they were standing still and won with plenty in hand.
Angel of Harlem was formerly in Canterbury and was having his first start to McGillvray, who is a dab hand with the stayers. Two of New Zealand's top jumpers, Dancing Banshee and Aranui Flash, clashed in the hurdles and, as expected, they fought out the finish with Dancing Banshee having the edge.
The Parkview Motors class four sprint over 290m saw Gus The Builder ? one of two winners trained on the day by Masterton's Mark Beeson ? break the track record with a time of 16.96secs.He dashed to the lead early in the piece and won untested.
Other local successes came from the Morris kennels from Woodville with Dilana and Gungullin, Matthew Gardner of Eketahuna with Justa Drip and club president Gary Caffell of Masterton with Keith's Insurance.
Monday's meeting was something of a gamble for the Wairarapa club, as Monday racing is something new for the greyhound fraternity, and starting at noon meant reaching the TAB budgets for both on and off course betting was always going to be a test.
As it happened, however, the on-course figures of $12,000 were $2000 above the budgeted figure and the $282,000 off-course was basically right on the target amount.
Caffell said the success of the meeting was a tribute to the way in which Wairarapa people reacted to greyhound racing at Solway.
"Quite honestly the on-course support we get meeting after meeting would be far better than any other club in the country on a population basis," he said. "It's nice to know that the bigger clubs are jealous of us!" January will be a busy month for the Wairarapa club with four TAB meetings scheduled for Solway Showgrounds then.