Gulf Greyhound Park’s track record holder, Greta’s Hardrock, used an awesome rush to the 1st turn to run away from an excellent field of sprinters in Saturday night’s $20,000 TGA Texas Round Up, Texas’ richest greyhound race. Yes, it is true, aside from winning Texas’ most coveted race, Greta’s Hardrock set the track record back on February 22; however, it wasn’t over the 550-yard course, but instead, lowered the longstanding mark to 36.38 on the 660-yard course. The multi-talented Greta’s Hardrock just missed the newly set 550-yard mark by three-hundredths of a second in the Round Up, a record set less than ten days ago by Mulberry Lazer.
Sambade Racing’s 62-lb gal out of Dodgem By Design and C Ya Dominica and owned by Larry Waddington drew the eight-post in the final, not a favorable start for the rail running speedster; however, she proved to make the most of the post. Despite breaking in fifth position, Hardrock found another gear early that none of the other competitors had. She rushed her way into first place by the 1/8-pole, and extended to a three-length lead before she reached the tote board. At this point, it was over, the rest of the field could only chase her. The Troy Tinney trained budding superstar pulled to a four-length lead at the head of the stretch and opened up the margin to seven-lengths at the finish line, running an extreme 29.68, as mentioned, just three-hundredths off the track record. What an amazing feat it would be to hold both track records, so very close.
This big win, which made the kennel a cool $10,000 in stakes money, was her twelfth win in twenty-three starts in 2009, and her twenty-second career victory, all at Gulf Greyhound Park. One of the fastest greyhounds at the park, Hardrock paid a very nice $11.40 for the win, coming off at $4.80 to $1 at the betting windows.
The rest of the 2009 TGA Texas Round Up field finished as follows: 2nd – C Ya Fuzzy Navel (30.16), 3rd – DLT El Matador (30.55), 4th – Gable Sour Cream (30.61), 5th – Greta’s Keyless (30.79), 6th – Atascocita Felda (30.93), 7th – Akeelah (31.17), and 8th – Cry Taylor (Fell - OOP).
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