Lucky Hero lands the plunge for Catton

By Isaac Murphy

There was plenty of interest around several runners in heat one of the Listed Dashing Corsair last Thursday.

Maggie Moo Moo returned from the Group 1 Sandown Cup, local star Smart Lilly second up, Barsandi stepping up to the 700, but not many stopped to look at John Catton’s Lucky Hero in the form guide.

The son of Fernando Bale has been enigmatic and injury prone since joining the kennel at the start of last year, but unbeknownst to others, Catton had him humming when it counted.

“He trialled the house down over the 400 at Ipswich on the Monday before the race, his closing section told me he was going to be right in the finish come Thursday night,” he said.

With this intimate knowledge at hand, Catton was happy to let those who asked know just how good Lucky Hero was going as he was crunched in from $101 to $41 at the jump.

“I had a few mates who saw him come up at 100-1, so I got a few calls asking how he was going I let them know he was a decent chance, and they obviously had a fair crack because he was into his starting price at $41 when I checked,” he said.

“It wasn’t until after the race I heard one bloke who’d been having a good run on the punt had put enough on him to put down a deposit on a unit a Surfers Paradise, he called me and said whenever you want to come down it’s there for you - I couldn’t believe it.

“It was a good week to win a bit of money as well, the syndicate I train for bought a couple of Feral Franky/Off the Deck pups and a Zambora Brockie/Mitchie Madam pup, which is the next litter to Little Byrnes, so we off set all those costs as well.”

The plunge was no stab in the dark, those who got on had a fair idea Lucky Hero was going to get his chance and Catton couldn’t contain his emotion of sharing the win with his mates.

“All week we were talking about how the dog was going to pull it off, I had a close mate do the form analysis who thought he’d get a beautiful run along the back and sail up underneath them and that’s exactly what he did,” he said.

“I normally try to stay pretty stoic when one of my dogs gets up but given special circumstances, I think you would’ve heard me from the grandstand when he hit the line.

“You make a lot of plans in greyhound racing, and they don’t always come off; when I got him back racing a couple of months ago, I set him for this race and for everything to play out as it did was pretty magical, and we’ve still got a bit Winter Carnival in front of us too.”

Gambling aside, it was a massive win from the dog who hasn’t been able to get any continuity in his racing until now.

“I was rapt for the dog as well; since I’ve been training him, we’ve had to spell him five different times through injury, he’s had all sorts of problems with his tail, but it looks like we’re finally going to get a clean run at it,” Catton said.

“It was the second 700-metre race of his career on a rain affected track and he’s come from well off the leaders to run over the top of a Group class field.

“When he came to me way back at the start of 2020 at his fourth start for me, he ran fourth behind Velocity Bettina in the Group 3 Golden Sands Final, so expectations were really high and it’s nice to finally reward the owner, Matt Cranitch."

Catton said he expects the dog to be even better second up over the 700 and hopes to put his name up in lights for the upcoming staying events.

“I took him out the next morning and he had a nice little free gallop in the paddock, showing no effects of the big run the night before and he’ll be feeling even better about himself for the Final,” he said.

“The box draw (six) is not what we were hoping for, but if he can let the speed go early and find his way to the fence, I think he might just run over the top of all of them.

“Zipping Niseko is probably the one we’ve got to be weary of, she’s got speed early and can stay late, so we don’t want to be giving her a massive start.”