Caption: Michael Lalicz’s Ricochet Ripple winning at Capalaba recently. The promising Jungle Deuce x Ripple Rumble chaser will contest one of four Ipswich Derby heats on Saturday night. (Photo: Just Greyhound Photos)

By Pat McLeod 

Tweed hinterland trainer Michael Lalicz is excited by what Saturday night’s Ipswich derby and futurity heats will reveal.

“Historically these are the races that unveil future champions,” he said.

“When you look across these fields for Saturday night you see dogs that are already showing great promise, but there will be more who will really start to show what the future has in store.

“I do like the age-restricted races because they are an excellent stepping-stone, the right company for young greyhounds.”

There will be three futurity heats and four derby heats on the Ipswich 12-race program on Saturday night.

It is also a historic occasion.

It will be the final running of the prestigious events before racing moves to the eagerly awaited, The Q, at nearby Purga, in the early new year.

Lalicz has two runners in the heats, Fly Out Day (box 4) in Race 2, the opening futurity heat, and Ricochet Ripple (box 1) in Race 5, the first of the derby heats.

“Both dogs are at the top of their game and going well at the moment,” he said.

“The bitch, Fly Out Day, ran best of the night (30.51) when she won at Ipswich recently.

“With Ricochet Ripple, we are far from seeing the best of him at this early stage. There is plenty of scope for improvement.”

Lalicz said the West Australian-bred Fly Out Day had come to him via the same ownership group who has two of his existing top chasers, Seaton Key and Journey Beyond.

That group now also includes veteran Townsville dog man, Rob Lound.

“I really like her breeding,” he said of Fly Out Day.

“That is what first got me interested and so I decided to give her a go based on that.

“She had won first-up at Ipswich before she was offered to me.

“I raced her at Albion, but she didn’t quite click there.

“So, I took her to Ipswich and she has just continued to improve.

“She has shown good early speed, which is always a bonus.

“On Saturday night she is drawn in a reasonable heat and she likes to go straight, so I am happy with the four (box).

“If she can get to the corner first, she will be in this race for a long way.

“I’m pretty interested to see how she tracks over the next 10 or so starts.

“She’s certainly good enough to be in this race and what I like is she has breeding potential.”

Lalicz said his home-bred Ricochet Ripple had a slightly delayed start to his racing career with a few ‘minor niggles’, but after an eight-race program up the Capalaba straight ‘he has been impressive’.

“I have always had the opinion that he was one of the better ones out of the litter and he has been impressive at his trials at Ipswich,” he said.

“Like any young dog he will get better over distance the more he races, but I don’t think the 520 metres will be a problem for him.

“And the fact that he has not had a race start at Ipswich won’t be an issue because he has had a couple of decent trials there.

“For him, it was just a case of getting him over the niggles when he was a pup, but now he is doing a lot of things right.

“In his racing so far he has shown he has reasonable field sense and I can see that he’s interested and that he is doing his best.

“Saturday night will be a good test, when you have dogs like Duffman (Jedda Cutlack) racing.”

This Saturday’s heats will feed into the $30,000-to-the-winner finals on Saturday, October 26.