Beck And Call to step up again at Ipswich

By Alex Nolan

Trainer Christine Bourke is hoping Beck And Call can take further improvement from his dominant debut win at Ipswich last Monday when he lines up at the Showgrounds for his toughest test to date on Thursday night.

From Bourke’s exceptional High Class Belle litter that had been dominating at Capalaba prior to the floods, Beck And Call was impressive in beating the Tony Brett-trained King Cole in 30.75 seconds when contesting a No Metro Wins Penalty race last Monday.

Beck And Call will again face stiff opposition when he exits box four in the Fifth Grade Heat over 520 metres – race seven on the card – against the likes of Tony Apap flying machine Fearghal Monelli and the Brent Kline-trained Keen.

“He’s a very fast dog and we’ve known that from day one,” Bourke said.

“Hopefully he’ll improve but the litter are only babies still … they’re not yet two years old.

“It’s quite a hard race and box four doesn’t help but it is what it is.”

Beck And Call was a winner of three from six at Capalaba and posted a personal best time of 19.61 seconds at just his fourth start.

Bourke said all was in readiness to take the 37 kilogram dog to Albion Park before the floods put Brisbane’s home of greyhound racing out of action.

“He hadn’t even trialled at Ipswich,” Bourke said.

“We had concentrated on Albion Park so we had to have a few trials before we could start him.

“He went a lot faster than he did the other night in his trials and went post-to-post in 24.62 seconds.”

Bourke has been battling severe hip pain for some time now but is booked to have hip replacement surgery in about four weeks.

She continues to receive help from her children but has agonised over what to with her portion of the litter – that is split between her and North Ipswich trainer Greg Mellen – while in recovery.

“I didn’t want to give them to anybody else because mine are a bit spoilt,” Bourke said.

“But I’ve had plenty of offers from people saying they’d take them, naturally.”

Thursday’s 10-race Ipswich program kicks off at 6:39pm.