Exciting young dog Cry Wolf set for 2023 Townsville Cup

By Jordan Gerrans

North Queensland’s magical trainer Harold Hovi has earmarked the 2023 Townsville Cup as an ambition for exciting young dog Cry Wolf after he claimed the local Young Guns Final on Tuesday evening.

The black dog has only one blemish on his race record so far, winning six from seven trips to the races at Townsville’s Showgrounds complex.

Starting from the one box in the 380 metre Final for $6,500, Cry Wolf was a touch slow away before railing with the field and eventually powering away in the closing stages to score by almost four lengths.

The son of Zambora Brockie claimed the feature race in a sharp 21.54 seconds, showing his huge potential to run close-up to the Townsville track record time at just his seventh career start.

The Tony Parker-trained Paulie Walnuts holds the record for the 380 metre dash around Townsville at 21.41 seconds – which he has completed twice.

Veteran dog man Hovi – who is referred to as the “Magic Man” in the NQ industry – was chuffed with his emerging greyhounds time on Tuesday evening.

“I am not saying that he will break the track record but as long as he keeps running the way he is, I will be happy,” Hovi said.

Cry Wolf is most certainly the star of his Zambora Brockie and Zipping Spring litter at this stage, accounting for two thirds of the litters victories.

While he boasts an impressive record just six weeks after he won his maiden race, Hovi still thinks there is work to be done with his youngster.

He described Cry Wolf as an overly excited dog once he is at the track – which takes away plenty of energy that could be used in the race itself – and he identified that as an aspect where further improvement could come.

“He is progressing along good and I will just poke along with him now,” the owner and trainer said.

“Hopefully I can pick up a few more good races.

“He is a pretty good box dog and that is where he is winning his races at the moment, at the start.

“He is going good.

“I think he can keep improving on what he is doing.

“I just need to work on him to see if he can settle down a bit better.”

It has already been a special 2022 year for the Hovi kennel, lifting the Group 3 Townsville Cup in early September with kennel star Redemption Day.

Redemption Day won through to the Townsville Cup Final after claiming the inaugural Townsville Wildcard.

Still only lightly raced, Redemption Day has continued on with his consistent form since the $40,000 Cup triumph earlier this year.

With plans to step Cry Wolf up in distance in the coming months, Hovi is optimistic he could also become a Townsville Cup contender later in 2023.

“I will give him a try over 500 metres later on, probably next year,” Hovi said.

“He will not be going anywhere; he will just be racing in Townsville so the 500 metres is the distance I would like him to run.

“He could be a Cup dog but I do not want to get too far ahead of ourselves, I just want to take it step by step with him.”

While Hovi has won numerous feature races over his tenure in the industry, he does not phase himself too much when it comes to the breeding side of the sport.

He found the dog that would become Cry Wolf online and quickly snapped him up without doing much research at all.

“I thought I would take a chance on him; I did not do any study of the form or any of the other litter or what the mother had done,” the long-time NQ trainer said.

“I do not go into a whole lot of that, if I like the dog then I will usually just buy them.

“You can sit down and go through all the form, what the mother done or how good the mating is, but at the end of the day, it could be worth nothing to you.

“I just liked what I saw and went from there.”

Also at Townsville on Tuesday evening, local trainer Laurie Wode prepared a winning treble across the 12-event program.