SHAWN NOACK

RETURNING greyhound Gunnadoo Driver scored victory at Gawler on Friday afternoon.

Trained by Robyn Mackellar, the runner featured in race four and was equal favourite out of box five alongside Dictation, trained by Ben Rawlings, out of box two.

The jump from the 400m start line was patchy, with Dictation heading to the rail and Gunnadoo Driver running a straight line out of the box.

Coming down off the camber on the turn, Gunnadoo Driver took the lead by a good five lengths along the back straight ahead of Aston Nikita, trained by June Sharpe, and Dictation.

He continued to extend that lead to win by nearly 10 lengths in a time of 22.73 seconds ahead of Dictation and Aston Nikita.

Gunnadoo Driver was injured last year and possibly wouldn’t have run again except for the love and care given to him.

Affectionately known as “Big Bill”, he was pertained by Robyn as a young, up and coming dog.

In his first two starts, Big Bill damaged a stopper tendon, which prevented him from running.

He was sent back to the owner, and trainer in his own right, Robert Barclay for a spell and to work on the injury.

A few months later he returned to racing under Robert’s guidance, but Big Bill again had a set back where bone chips were discovered in his hock.

He was operated on by one of Adelaide’s best vets to remove the bone chips, which turned out to be more than expected.

The prognosis for returning to racing was low, however, Robert took Bill home and after extensive therapy over seven months, got the all clear to return to the race track.

Robyn received Bill back to her kennels to bring him back to race fitness and to continue racing.

She said Big Bill is a lovely dog and that she will continue to nurse him along and monitor his progress.

Gawler will race this coming Friday and Tuesday in the afternoon.