This week of racing at Gulf Greyhound Park showed how evenly matched the top grade AA level of competition is on a daily basis. There was one impressive effort by Atascocita Rian, from Libby Racing Kennels, that earned the honor as Greyhound of the Week.
The beginning of Atascocita Rian’s career showed promise as it only took twelve starts to climb the grade ladder to our top grade AA level during the latter part of 2009. As his career started to blossom, so did the success for Atascocita Rian running in the money on a very consistent basis including three more grade AA victories. As time progressed though, the late running style of Atascocita Rian ran into some snags as he continued to hit the paysheet but failed to achieve another grade AA victory after March 16. Along the way, Atascocita Rian did manage to win three grade A races in the months of April, June and August.
The first day of September was an interesting day to say the least as heavy rain plagued the races at `the Gulf` making for a muddy racetrack. The featured tenth race included Atascocita Rian along with several top grade winners including C Ya Fuzzy Navel, Can You Do This, CTW Basic Skills, Tipp Cityboy and this year’s TGA Texas Round Up Champion, Look My Way. With such a high caliber field, the fans allowed Atascocita Rian to go off as the longest shot in the field at odds of 49 to 1. The sun managed to peek out just in time for the race and as the 550-yard starting box opened, Atascocita Rian found a good position in the middle of the pack. The lead would change hands from RJ’s Gohny to the stakes champion, Look My Way, around the far turn and it appeared that the race was over. Guess what? Atascocita Rian said `No Way` accelerating at the top of the stretch to fly by Look My Way impressively and pulled away to a four-length victory with a win ticket price of $100.40.
Atascocita Rian (Atascocita Leroy – Atascocita Flame) continues to have a very successful career finishing on the paysheet 79 percent of the time (42 out of 53 career starts) including six wins this year and twelve total. Be here on Wednesday afternoon September 8 to watch Atascocita Rian go for two wins in a row in the 13th race finale.
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