By Alex Nolan
Trainer Jemma Daley was brought to tears after claiming the biggest scalp of her burgeoning greyhound racing career in Thursday’s Group 2 Ipswich Cup Final.
Well-supported favourite Hara’s Herbie made full use of an inside draw to find the front going out of the straight the first time, established a six length lead down the back and put the race to bed early to claim the $100,000 winner’s cheque.
Ipswich specialist Sunburst continued chasing the fawn son of Sennachie throughout but couldn’t bridge the gap, with the Claude Dacey-trained Nando Dreamer filling third.
The Daley-trained and Tony Glover-owned Hara’s Herbie continued charging to the line and stopped the clock in a slick 30.19 seconds, downing his previous best at the circuit by more than 0.2 seconds.
Daley has made the transition from thoroughbred jockey and track work rider, where she worked with prominent trainers such as John Hawkes, Pat Duff and Tony Gollan, to a full-time career as a greyhound trainer over the past three years.
Daley grew up around the animal through her grandfather and after going all in with the gallops, made her way back to the dogs in early 2019.
Training out of quiet north side suburb Kurwongbah, Daley is now a prominent name at tracks across South East Queensland.
Having tasted success in the Group 3 Rising Stars at Albion Park last month with Hara’s Skye – who was expected to be Daley’s leading hope of claiming the Ipswich Cup – the win capped off a dream period for the rising kennel.
“This is an absolute highlight for me having only trained for three years,” Daley said.
The emotion overflowed for the young trainer behind the boxes after her charge crossed the line.
“I was shaking, I had tears,” she said.
“I don’t get too emotional with those things, I’ve been at big days like the Doomben 10,000 with The Bostonian and things like that.
“I know thoroughbreds and greyhounds are two different industries but there are a lot of similarities with the time and effort you put into the animals.
“They’re young dogs and hopefully have plenty of racing left in them.”
Hara’s Herbie has been the star performer in the Sennachie litter our of Hara’s Annie, with Thursday’s win taking his career earnings just shy of $150,000.
He becomes the third progeny of Hara’s Annie to break the $100,000 prize money mark and also gave his sire Sennachie a maiden Group success.
Hara’s Herbie contested the Group 3 Vince Curry Series at Ipswich earlier this year and finished third in the Final.
He would later head north to contest the Townsville Cup series and after winning a heat, placed fifth in the Group 3 Final.
“He was a real surprise packet, we weren’t expecting too much when we entered the Vince Curry series,” Daley said.
“He’s a dog who has got better and better, I wasn’t sure about going to Townsville with him because he’s a terrible traveller but the trip made him.
“He just knocked two tenths off his best time – which shows there’s plenty more to come with him.
“So, to have all these dogs and rearing them from the start cements in my mind we’re doing the right thing and we’ll keep doing what we’re doing.”