Ipswich gets ready for the Curry Maiden to join the Q

Caption: The Ned Snow-trained Shipwreck won the Vince Curry in 2022 and has since won the G3 Rockhampton Cup as well as qualifying for another four Group finals. (Photo: Box 1 Photography)

Ipswich club news with MIKE HILL

IPSWICH is expecting a flood of nominations for what could be the last Vince Curry Memorial Maiden series ever staged at the Showgrounds track.

With Ipswich club members last month agreeing to amalgamate with the Brisbane Greyhound Racing Club for the big move to The Q, next month’s $112,500 Group 3 Vince Curry final is carrying extra significance.

The Q, the $39.15 million, three-track complex at Purga on the outskirts of Ipswich, will be the future home of greyhound racing in south-east Queensland.

It is expected to be operational by late 2024.

If so, the Vince Curry final in early February could be the last edition of the prestigious feature to be run at the Ipswich club’s spiritual home for more than four decades.

However, if delays do occur at Purga, the Ipswich club has contingencies in place to continue racing at the Showgrounds track into 2025.

The Vince Curry series launches with heats on January 20, semi-finals on January 27 and the $75,000-to-the-winner final on February 3.

Katie’s Lad won the inaugural event for trainer Peter Coleman back in 1984 and the world’s richest race for maidens has been run every year since (except in 1986).

And over the years some of the sport’s greats have launched wonderful careers after winning the Vince Curry; dogs like Token Prince (1997), Just The Best (1999), High Earner (2009), Farmor Beach (2020) and Shipwreck (2022) to name a few.

In the words of Ipswich stalwart, trainer and former club president Rob Essex: “It’s a race owners and trainers really want to win.

“They can win Derbys, Young Guns series or the Ipswich Cup, but it is the Vince Curry that is a humbling experience for a trainer,” Essex said on the eve of last year’s classic.

Last month, he was again singing the praises of the prestigious event.

Essex says it’s one race on the calendar that many trainers target.

“I’ve been going to the series since the ’80s and I’ve noticed those that get to the final turn out to be very good dogs,” he said.

“It can be a great stepping stone for a dog.”

Essex is one of three Ipswich representatives elected at an extraordinary general club meeting last month to join the six-member interim committee of the new Queensland Greyhound Racing Club.

The others are current club president Steve Woods and vice-president Graham Hall.

Essex said he expected good nominations for the upcoming Vince Curry.

“We had 350 nominations for the club’s puppy auction in October, so there are a lot of pups about,” he said.

In the early days of the Vince Curry it was a four-race series over 512m before the distance was pushed out to 520m in 2003 when it was won by the Ned Snow-trained Woops A Daisy.

Paul Dolan, one of Australia’s most respected former greyhound race callers and an industry historian, has his favourite Vince Curry winners.

The now-retired Dolan, who called at least 36 Vince Curry finals over the years, considers Token Prince and Just The Best his best two.

Speaking to Chase earlier this year, he said: “Mick Abbott brought Token Prince up from New South Wales (in 1997) and he went through the four nights of the series undefeated.

“Token Prince won the final by four lengths over another budding star, a bitch named Heart Spark. There was a gap of seven lengths back to the third placegetter Solo Sailor.

“Token Prince’s deeds at stud are legendary and we first heard about him at Ipswich.

“Just The Best was the royally bred son of Credibility and Flying Amy and won the final by 14 lengths.

“Paul Felgate’s excitement machine did that from box six and ran a race record of 29.76s.

“The distance in those days was 512 metres, later increased to 520 metres. As a sire, Just The Best produced high-class racers and stud dogs, including Surf Lorian, Big Daddy Cool and Elite State. And Queensland and Australian Hall of Fame bitch Bogie Leigh.”

Another high-profile winner, Christine Robartson’s High Earner in 2009, was inducted into the Queensland greyhound Hall of Fame two years ago.

After his Vince Curry success, High Earner, the son of Collision and Double Guess, then won his next six starts, all at Albion Park – the quickest in an impressive 29.76s.

By the time he retired from the track in April 2011, High Earner had amassed $610,070 in prizemoney – the highest of any greyhound in Australia at that time – and his race record stood at 33 wins and 21 placings from 69 starts.

At stud, High Earner produced dual Group 1-winning stayer Star Recall and Lamia Bale, also a G1 winner in the Sapphire Crown at Sandown. Ada Mary was another top progeny, winning the Sydney, Summer and Newcastle Cups.

For the gifted, the Vince Curry has been the launch pad to a wonderful career.

Just take recent winners Farmor Beach (2020) and Shipwreck (2022) as examples.

Both went on to further Group glory with Farmor Beach retiring with an outstanding record of 23 wins and 15 placings from 58 starts and prizemoney in excess of $276,000; while Shipwreck’s stats stand at 18 wins and 23 placings from 61 outings with earnings just under $324,000,

And again this year the Vince Curry has been included in the Queensland Summer Carnival.

Meanwhile, February is a big month for the Ipswich club.

As well as the final of the Vince Curry, the club will stage the $18,500 Corporate Dollars Challenge (520m) – heats February 10 and the final on February 17 – the same night as the $7700 288m Dash For Cash final (heats February 8).

Recent Vince Curry winners include: 2023 Elisheba (box 7) 30.81s; 2022 Shipwreck (5) 30.77s; 2021 Rumble Ranger (4) 30.63s; 2020 Farmor Beach (1) *30.33s; 2019 Spotted Wolf (3) 30.74s; 2018 Rose Honey (8) 30.78s; 2017 Fire To Rain (1) 30.52s; 2016 **Split Image (4) 30.42s and **Paua To Avoid (8) 30.42s; 2015 Heidi Benz (3) 30.83s; 2014 Jungle Junction (4) 30.46s; 2013 Allez Brigette (3) 30.66s; 2012 Brook Lee (7) 30.78s; 2011 Dance A Jig (1) 30.64s; 2010 Auriga Fox (8) 30.95s; 2009 High Earner (5) 30.56s; 2008 Red Aces (3) 30.89s; 2007 Flying Felicity (1) 30.95s; 2006 Winsome Ace (8) 31.08s; 2005 Vizcaya (4) 30.82s; 2004 Runaway Sally (2) 30.77s; 2003 Woops A Daisy (5) 31.03s.

Key: * Race record; ** Deadheat.

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