CAPTION: Graeme Jose’s Perfect Product underlined his potential with an impressive win in 24.53 at the recent Horizon Final meeting at Sale.

By ANDREW THOMSON

While boom sprinter Ferdinand Boy was claiming the headlines in the $25,000-to-the-winner Horizon final at Sale recently, there were two other greyhounds worthy of note on the same card.

Ferdinand Boy took his career record to 22 wins and nine placings from 39 starts, collecting almost $200,000 in prizemoney.

He won the Horizon in a driving finish, holding off the impressive Dr Tucker.

Ferdinand Boy ran 24.58 seconds, with a run-home time of 10.94.

In comparison up-and-coming sprinter Perfect Product ran a best-of-the-night of 24.53 with a run-home time of 10.86.

And first-starter Sir Harley ran 24.75 with a run-home time of 10.89, almost a length faster than Ferdinand Boy in a stunning debut.

Catani trainer Graeme Jose said Perfect Product was an outstanding type he was just taking quietly through his grades.

The 33.5kg fawn sprinter is by US stud dog Superior Product (by KC And All) out of Fluent and has had 13 starts for six wins and three placings.

He won at Warragul first start in a slick 22.88, saluted third start at Sale by 7.75 lengths in 24.85, then ran 24.83 and 24.73 when he got clear runs at the same venue in his first 10 starts.

Jose said Perfect Product ran pretty straight, but found another leg when he found the rails.

\”That run at Sale did attract attention. I had quite a lot of friends after that race. He\’s fast,\” he said.

Jose previously trained gun sprinter-stayer Mantra Lad.

\”You couldn\’t really compare the two,\” he said.

\”Mantra Lad was brilliant. If he was one length quicker early he would have been a superstar rather than a sprinter-stayer.\”

Mantra Lad had 56 starts for 26 wins and 17 placings, collecting more than $450,000 in prizemoney.

\”He was versatile, an absolutely beautiful dog and he served

100-plus bitches, but he didn\’t get the best bitches. We gave away a lot of free services and there were some average girls among them,\” Jose said.

\”I do believe Perfect Product will get the 500 (metres), but I\’m happy to just take him through his grades.

\”Everyone rushes to get to Melbourne but we\’ll just take him along quietly.

\”He\’ll go to Sandown and his box-to-box sections will tell me how he\’s  travelling.

\”His run home times at Sale and Warragul suggest he\’ll definitely run 500 and be competitive down there.\”

Jose said when Perfect Product could get a clear passage he carved out good sectional times.

\”He\’s just one out of the box, he does everything right, he\’s a great kennel dog and most importantly chases well.\”

The Fluent bitch line goes back to sprinter-stayer Oh Behave who had 75 starts for 34 wins and almost $200,000 in prizemoney in the early 2000s.

Pearcedale trainer Dave Crawford is hopeful his youngster Sir Harley (Dundee Osprey-Jacqui Shoshone) can develop into a handy sprinter but his pedigree also suggests he may run over more than just the 500 metres.

\”He went good,\” Crawford said.

\”He\’s been trialling and in light work for at least six months. I\’ve got seven in the litter, him and five other dogs and one bitch.

\”He\’s the quickest early and the best at this stage. His run home at Sale was the second best for the day and quicker than Ferdinand Boy, but it was against an average field of maidens and it\’s different when there\’s pressure on early.

\”They\’re three-quarters the same breeding as a good stayer I had who broke a hock, He Shall Power. He ran third in the Sandown Cup last year and made two Group 1 finals at Sandown.\”

Crawford said he had the bitch line for three generations, starting with Trios Pinari which led to Shall She Rock, who won 19 races and picked up $140,000 in prizemoney racing against the likes of super stayer Sweet It Is.

\”She\’s the best I\’ve had. She was a top-class stayer but there were a couple around at the same time like Sweet It Is,\” he said.

The trainer said he sent the naming papers away but had a hiccup when Greyhound Racing Victoria knocked back his prefix Crawf\’s when he wanted to continue on from Crawf\’s Bread, which had 31 wins and 47 placing from 132 starts, including 12 city wins, $130,000 in prizemoney and was a reserve for the Australian Cup final.

\”GRV has decided to ban apostrophes, so we had to re-submit names, changing them to Sir and Madam which costs us a fortnight,\” Crawford said.

\”We missed the heat and final nominations of the maiden at Sale by a day,\” he said.

\”The good news is I\’ve still got a decent pup in the kennel. The others look like they can run a bit. We just have to get them out of the boxes a bit better.

\”Sir Harley has run 21.13 up the back in trials at Cranbourne and pups don\’t go any better and he\’s gone under 19 seconds at Sandown on trial day.

\”I\’m thinking of putting him in at The Meadows. If I start him in the bush he\’s going to be short and we\’ll be going around for stakemoney

\”We had a bit on him at Sale but it\’s hard to get much on in the bush now. The best we got was $2.30 fixed on the tote.

\”In the past I\’ve had some reasonable dogs get beat first-up. You always want to have more on after they win.

\”We\’ve got about 13 in work, all our own dogs. Cuts down on the arguments when you just train your own,\” he said with a chuckle.