Sibling rivalry Monaghan’s motivation in Sprint Series

By Isaac Murphy

Northern Rivers trainer Andrew Monaghan rugged up Red Pollard for last Saturday’s Ipswich Auction Sprint Series semi-final fully expecting to run a place behind an odds-on favourite.

The promising youngster subsequently bolted in by three lengths, and while Monaghan is keen to claim the underdog tag again this week, the run puts him on everyone’s radar ahead of Saturday’s Final.

The son of Barcia Bale has enjoyed a brilliant start to his career, and after three wins at Ipswich and two closer to home at Lismore making it five from seven, and Monaghan is keen to see what the dog can do when he fully matures.

“The dog’s always shown good ability, it was quite ironic I was saying to one of the guys before the semi-finals he just hadn’t quite put it together yet and he came out and ran his best race yet,” he said.

“I was confident we’d make the top four and give ourselves a crack in the Final this week but didn’t expect to beat Flaming Rose from the eight, but we jumped, and she got into some trouble and he did it well.

“He’s still a bit green and again this week will give away a lot of experience to the favourites Little Byrnes and Borneo Bandit who’ve drawn one and two, but we saw what can happen in the semis he’s given himself a chance.”

Such is the dog’s potential, he’s still built the imposing record despite flaws and is getting on the job training for his future assignments.

“The fact he’s still won five races from seven starts probably speaks to how talented he is, if you can learn on the fly while you’re winning that’s ideal,” Monaghan said.

“On what I’ve seen of him so far he probably won’t go beyond the 431 anytime soon and will be doing a lot of his racing from those boxes at Ipswich, it’s nice to see he’s already getting familiar with them.

“He’s really impressed over the similar 420 metres at Lismore running nice time winning both of his starts, he’s not a lid-pinger but really musters after a few strides.”

Monaghan is hoping that explosion is on full display from a wide draw in Saturday’s final, while the other main hopes enjoy box one and two.

“Wherever he drew in relation to Little Byrnes and Borneo Bandit, it was going to be tough ask and he’s certainly going to have to go to another level being posted in the seven,” he said.

“Given his penchant of taking a few strides, I thought box eight might have suited him perfectly and I guess seven is the next best thing, he’ll be trying to shoot around the outside of them.

“The inside two will probably have to have a little bump early if he wants to lead, but if he can’t get across, they’ll have to run some time to beat him.”

Monaghan praised the Ipswich Club for getting the Sprint race up and running again, with plenty of young short course dogs lining up for a crack at a feature win.

“The re-introduction of this race last year has been a real hit with trainers, it’s tough to find young dogs that’ll run the 500 metres - he certainly couldn’t - and he gets a chance to race for good money Saturday night,” he said.

“It’s great for his development coming up against open company as well, that’s where his future lies and he’s showing he belongs.

“He’s an out-and-out 431-metre dog and after Saturday we’ll be back and forth with him running at Lismore and Ipswich over the short course.”

Remarkably, the race favourite Little Byrnes is Red Pollard’s litter brother, and Monaghan is keen to do a good job for the breeder.

“I’m pretty motivated to do a good job for the owner and breeder Lawry Meteyard who came to me with the dog after he was a buy back at the Auction, I’ve been very fortunate to pick one up like him,” he said.

“His main rival Little Byrnes is his brother out of Lawry’s (Meteyard) Barcia Bale/Mitchie Madam litter, with what those two have done so far they’re clearly a fast line.

“The dam Mitchie Madam was a really speedy bitch over the shorts, she struggled with the 500 as well, but we’ve seen Little Byrnes make the trip, so maybe one day for us.”