GEURIE trainer Jeanette Foley and her son Daniel have three chances to earn $125,000 in the next week - with one of three young greyhounds from the same litter.
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Tonight at Unibet Gardens track at Newcastle, trainer Jeanette Foley will start Taros Miss and Lil Miss Sparkle in the first semi-final of the Dogpro National Futurity (515m) and Lil Miss Mohawk in the second semi-final.
The first four dogs in each race qualify for the $75,000 to the winner group 1 final at the same track next Friday.
But just as important is the owner of the sire of the greyhounds, Goodsey, has offered a $50,000 cash bonus for the first of his progeny to win at Group level. So far that hasn't happened.
Goodsey had 27 starts for 16 wins and run some sensational times such as 28.38s over 515m at Bulli; 29.74s 520m at Wentworth Park and 30.23s for the 535m at Richmond.
Some of that brilliance is coming out in his progeny.
Foley sent her bitch Miss Tarro to Goodesy and the first litter produced nine pups, two of which died early.
But for the Foley it's been a great run of successes with the family owning outright six dogs and one other after having been sold is trained for the owners.
"All the dogs won races at their first few starts and they're not even two-years-old yet, so that's been a really good strike rate," she said.
"They are certainly a quality litter and it's just wonderful what they have done and of course have the potential to do even better.
“The semi-finals are both very strong but we’ve got this far and will be hoping for the best.”
The Foleys headed to The Gardens this morning with high hopes of success tonight.
In race six at 5.27pm on Sky Racing, Taros Miss will start from box four and Lil Miss Sparkle out of five; while Lil Miss Mohawk’s race is on at 6.07pm.
Foley believes Lil Miss Sparkle will be her main chance tonight, a greyhound that has built an imposing profile of 12 wins and a second from 15 starts. Last week in the qualifying heat she won in a near record 29.59s and her 4.87s first sectional time made the clockers sit up and take notice.
She was fast out of box six and led all the way to win by 3-1/4 lengths.
Lil Miss Sparkle’s best win was in the recent Summer Cup at Maitland in 25.25s over 450m.
While Foley is disappointed to have Taross Miss racing from the inside of Lil Miss Sparkle, this young bitch also has form on the board.
She’s won five from 18 but disappointed in the final stages of her qualifying after leading and had to be satisfied with third place in 29.80s which was still good enough to get into the semi-finals.
The biggest obstacle for Foley’s two starters in the first heat is the John Finn trained Sheikha, which recently won the Paws of Thunder series and has drawn box one tonight.
Lil Miss Mohawk was third in her heat in 29.88s, will appreciate the three box but isn’t all that strong at the start but does her best work at the finish. She has had 11 starts for two wins.