Shawn Noack
FRIDAY was beautiful autumn day for greyhound racing at Gawler, with impressive performances by Tanjil Ace and Hot Sambuca stealing the show and highlighting an excellent card.
First, in race three over the 400m distance, Ross Panagiotou left a very happy trainer after taking the win with Tanjil Ace.
Panagiotou, of Evanston Gardens, had been trying to get a start with Tanjil Ace for some time and was prompted to attend a qualifying trial the week before at Gawler to prove Tanjil was ready to race – and it paid off.
Tanjil Ace didn’t jump particularly well out of box-one, but held the rail and was able to push his way through along the back straight to be a contender.
He then weaved around the Troy Murray-trained greyhound Ping Magic to take the lead down the home straight, winning by a length in a time of 23.21 seconds.
Race eight gave Tony Rasmussen his double for the meeting after Hot Sambuca rose to the occasion from box-four over the 531m journey.
Hot Sambuca jumped strongly to the lead, but ran slightly wide on the turn, which almost gave Destini Catalina, out of box-eight, an opportunity to shoot to the lead.
The two greyhounds ran strongly down the back straight and into the final turn, keeping each other honest, and only in the final 50m was Hot Sambuca able to separate and prove too strong, winning in a time of 31.13 seconds.
Racing continues at Gawler on Tuesday during the day, and Friday for a twilight fixture, and can be viewed live on Sky Racing.