Caption: Trainer Gavin Harris (right) and Ken Fourer with Lena Jinx. (Photo: Kurt Donsberg)

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN NEWS With KURT DONSBERG

ZIPPING Neutron rarely gets beaten at Angle Park but it did happen recently – and it took a new track record to get the job done!

Lena Jinx, a beautiful looking blue girl, jumped straight to the front for trainer Gavin Harris and from that point she never looked like getting beaten.

Zipping Neutron was way back with a couple of hundred metres to run and Lena Jinx was highballing out in front.

She won by nearly eight lengths, and then there were gasps everywhere when the time popped up!

She clocked 42.29.

It took nearly three lengths off the 42.47 mark set by Fantastic Radley a little while back.

Gavin Harris was as happy as anyone.

“I was super excited about Lena Jinx’s track record.  I have been planning for several months to get her over the distance after she won her maiden with a last section split of 12.48 seconds over the 530m,” he said.

“My passion in the sport of greyhound racing is for staying events, so I mainly breed from bitches that can run at least 600m and preferably 700m-plus. I also make sure they have plenty of galloping when I rear them and use a rotary walker to maintain their fitness between races.”

Asked about the ‘Jinx’ part of his dogs’ names, he explained: “My daughter came up with the names ‘Jinx’ and ‘Lucy’ when she was eight years old, she is now 27 years old. I continued to name the progeny of Springvale Jinx with the ‘Jinx’ suffix.

“Lena Jinx is a great granddaughter of Springvale Jinx who competed in 22 Group finals throughout Australia. Her best performances were second in the Sandown Cup in 2004 and third in the Sandown Cup in 2006.

. “I bought the two sisters Springvale Jinx and Springvale Lucy for $500 each as pups. Lucy went on to win the last two Marathons held at Sandown.

“Lena’s dam is Luna Jinx who won $260,000 in prizemoney. The highlight of her career was winning the Group 1 Super Stayers race at The Meadows in 2015 and running a sensational time of 41.34 seconds over the Sandown 715m.  

“Luna won five races at Sandown and five races at The Meadows, plus other interstate races at Cannington and Albion Park.

“Len and Robyn Ketelaar used to train my dogs when in Melbourne before they retired.

“I hope Lena is as good as her mum but I will have to be patient and see how she handles the travel and can see if she can work her way through fields.”

She is definitely a dog to keep an eye on – wow, what a run!

Fantastic Radley retired

There comes a time to finally call it a day and there have been a couple of track record holders recently do just that.

The first was Fantastic Radley who pulled up a bit sore in his hock a couple of weeks back. There  was no hesitation to retire him and let him go out on a bit of a high.

The big white and black dog  was unquestionably one of our best stayers in recent years and when Angle Park shut down for renovations in 2021, he made Murray Bridge his own, with a 10-run winning streak at the height of his dominance.

He was only beaten a couple of times in his early SA days, with Bedrock Fred getting a victory over him…. but then it was all Radley for the subsequent battles.

He won the SA Distance Championship in 2021 and then again in 2022 and was invited to the Topgun in 2022. Unfortunately, he suffered a hock injury in that run but in true Radley fashion came back in early 2023.

He won a few more races on his return, and recently knocked off Zipping Neutron – who is the new kid on the staying block in SA and our current premier stayer.

Radley finishes his career with the impressive record of 37 wins and 22 placings from 69 starts and over $165,000 in prizemoney.

He won SA Stayer of the Year twice and currently holds the staying track records at Angle Park (42.47 over the 730m) and Murray Bridge (38.35 over the 680m)

Part-owner and regular handler Steve Jones was pretty clear about his relationship with the Fantastic Radley.

“He didn’t really like me, but he loved Ossie (Chegia)!” he said.

“As a team we were pretty good though! We just had an understanding – I’d lead him to the boxes and then he’d win.

“He won a few races along the way but I’d rate his win in the 2022 State Nationals as his best win.

“He did it the hard way after having all his runs blocked during the race, then worked hard three wide. It was just a gutsy win.

“Retirement looks pretty good on him.

“He’s going to live out his days with Liz and Ozzie and his little mate Coco (a Jack Russell).

“He’s been in the house a bit and has been dry humping the lounge cushions so he’ll have to knock that on the head, but overall he’s adjusted to retirement pretty well.

 “He’s just been a great dog.”

Enjoy retirement, Radley – you’ve been aces to watch.