A greyhound that has recently moved from Victoria to SA, raced at Gawler for the first time on Tuesday and went home with the bikkies for trainer Adrien Chevalier.
Starting in the 531m Grade 6 event, Adrien’s runner, Urana Smacko, began well from box 3, but was headed by Aussie Steel (1), Exhibition (7) and Aston Hinkley (6). Aussie Steel got out to a 2 length break, but was challenged on the back turn when Urana Smacko and Mr Onasis (4) put some pressure on. Urana Smacko took the lead and looked set for a safe win, but Mr Onasis and Spring In China (2) lunged near the line to make it a very tight finish. Urana Smacko narrowly won by a head from Mr Onasis for Ross Panagiotou, with Spring In China just a neck away in third position for John Johnstone.
The winner is trained by Adrien Chevalier, and raced in partnership with Anthony Lapinskas, his wife’s cousin. Adrien said that Urana Smacko had missed the start at his first starts for him, but had got away better at his last two, resulting in wins.Adrien became involved with greyhounds about 5 years ago after he “caught the bug” watching greyhounds racing on the media. Being very new to the sport, Adrien was very grateful for the support he has received at the Murray Bridge trial track from the Burns and Shepherd families, who helped him get his trainer’s licence.
With a team of six in work on the rural property in the Murraylands, Adrien just loves the sport because of the wonderful nature of the dogs, and his children enjoy helping as well. While his racing stock have all raced previously, Adrien has now bred his first litter from his most successful racing female, Pinkachu. Adrien works by the motto “that if the dogs are happy, they race well”, and he enjoys every minute of making that happen.
There is an extra race meeting on Thursday night 12th October, and don’t forget the exciting Gawler Gold Cup is on Sunday night, 5th November.
