By Jordan Gerrans
Even from his earliest days in their kennel, the leading Zammit team thought Jay Is Jay could reach great heights.
And, after only 15 starts of his still young racing career, the promising dog gets his chance at the highest level in the Group 1 Gold Bullion of 2023 after grabbing the Golden Ticket at Albion Park on Thursday night.
The fastest eight greyhounds from last week's heats were put into four match races on Thursday night, with the quickest time of the evening being handed the Group 3 Golden Ticket.
After the four match races were completed, Jay Is Jay and Western Australian visitor Throttle could not be split after both scorching the track in 29.52 seconds.
Due to the unique scenario of a dead heat in the match race series, a random ballot was conducted by QRIC stewards to determine the winner of the Golden Ticket, which provided direct entry into next month’s $375,000 Gold Bullion.
Jay Is Jay was plucked from the ballot and the training team of Selena and Mick Zammit now get an opportunity at the highest level in the 2022-23 Golden Greys Summer Carnival.
With only 15 race starts on his resume, Jay Is Jay has collected $114,035 in career stakes and kennel representative Mick thinks there is much more to come.
“There is no surprises, he showed exceptional ability from a young age,” Mick said.
“If he ever puts it all together, he could probably get close to track records at Albion Park.
“We are hopeful, anyway, as he has been getting stronger and faster.”
It is the second elite level victory for the red fawn dog for the carnival, after he was too strong in the Group 2 Queensland Derby earlier this month.
Throttle – who is prepared by former Queensland-based trainer Christine Robartson – set the early mark in the match races, putting a sharp 29.52 seconds on the board in the opening event.
At that stage following the stand out performance of Throttle, Mick thought his star youngster was going to have to settle for second or third, at best.
After beginning slower than what the Zammits would have hoped, Jay Is Jay put in a stunning middle split of 11.37 seconds to dead-heat with the visiting Sandgroper.