NORTHERN Rivers greyhound trainer Michael Landrigan will look to secure another major win at the Taree Super Track on Saturday night 23 August, when he runs Apache Tiger in the final of the $25,000 Mid North Coast Cup.
Landrigan was successful in the $12,000 Kempsey Cup run at Taree on July 30.
Apache Tiger clocked 30.20 for the 525 metre journey on that occasion.
On 13 August, Apache Tiger was the fastest qualifier from three heats, running 30.13.
Rose Marie, trained by Joseph Scerri (30.30), and Sprightly Sian, trained by David Geall (30.33), were the other heat winners.
Other starters in the 525 metre race are: Sandave Blaze (trainer David Richardson), Yogen Bale (Wayne White), Coast Rig (Patricia Chaker), Simplicity Magic (Troy Dunn) and See Red (Merv Turner).
Flying Goddess (Leanne Goodwin) is the reserve.
Mid North Coast Greyhounds secretary manager Peter Cassar said the quality of racing in the heats should ensure the final is a top class race.
There were starters in the heats from Sydney, the Hunter and Northern Rivers regions as well as the Mid North Coast.
This will be the only Saturday night meeting conducted by the club.
Last year’s final was run in October as the track only became operational in early September following a $6 million upgrade conducted by Greyhound Racing NSW.
This included switching from a grass racing surface to loam.
“That was the first major race we ran here,’’ Mr Cassar said.
The meeting drew a bumper crowd and the club is hoping for a similar turnout this weekend.
“The weather will play a big factor of course.
“We had a great night for the Cup last year, but that was in October. Still, we’re confident we’ll get a strong number of patrons here on August 23.”
Admission will be free and 12 races will be run.
The club is closing in on its first 12 months and Mr Cassar said 95 meetings have been run at the track.
There was an unexpected hurdle when the Taree area was hit by record flooding.
“We lost a month’s racing in May and June because of the flood.
“A whole section of the track was washed away.’’
Racing is conducted on Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings.
The Wednesday night meetings conducted in the warmer months drew big crowds
By Mick MCDONALD
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