Love on the side of Keeper's Heart in Ipswich Young Guns

By Jordan Gerrans

Keeper's Heart might just start faster than Cupid's arrow from the Ipswich boxes on Saturday evening.

The young greyhound was whelped on Valentine's Day of 2021 and was therefore given a race name with ‘heart’ in the title.

He also has a heart-shaped mark on his chest.

Trained and owned by Matthew Heilbronn at Raceview, he says Keeper's Heart has developed a cult following with his unique name, mark and birthday.

The white and blue brindle dog will tackle a heat of the Listed Ipswich Young Guns series on Saturday night after winning earlier this week at Albion Park.

The 520 metre series has attracted five heat fields for Saturday ahead of the $45,000 Final the following week.

Keeper's Heart is a two-time winner and three-time place getter from seven career starts so far at Albion Park.

Keeper's Heart is not the only dog from the litter with a love-themed name, with Valentine Again and Valentine Teddy also recently seen at South East Queensland tracks.

“He was first to be named,” Heilbronn said.

He named Keeper’s Heart after the Irish-American whiskey of the same name.

Heilbronn is quietly confident that Keeper's Heart has a bit of promise about him but he is yet to put it all together.

“He tries all right but he just needs to run and see what he can do,” Heilbronn said.

“He is not putting the times on the board yet but he can run. He is still pretty green. He is flying under the radar a bit.”

Heilbronn is best known in greyhound circles for preparing Dulceria, who has the Rockhampton and Townsville Cups on her resume.

Dulceria is still racing on in masters grade events.

“He is as fast as Dulceria – probably 0.2 seconds faster than him,” Heilbronn said of Keeper's Heart.

Keeper's Heart is from a Whiskey Riot and Cindy Rumble litter, with Heilbronn racing the brood bitch up until the middle of 2019.

New Design from the litter is also showing promise, winning in 30.42 seconds around Albion Park last month.

Keeper's Heart scored from box one in 30.51 seconds on Monday of this week before having his first race appearance at the Ipswich Showgrounds track on Saturday.

He will start with the green rug on in the second last heat of the five. 

“He has only had the one trial at Ipswich so I am not sure how he will go on Saturday, the trial was not great,” Heilbronn said.

“He just needs to get around that corner and go.”

After Dulceria’s fortunes in North Queensland in recent years, the trainer is considering taking Keeper's Heart – among others – to the Townsville Cup series next month.

“I am thinking more Townsville Cup with him later on,” he said.

The Townsville Cup (with the Final run on August 25) will be worth $75,000 to the winner.