Ipswich Corporate Sprint podium points to Saal’s next generation

By Pat McLeod

There was an ironic twist to the podium photo for the Ipswich Corporate Sprint Final over 431 metres on Saturday night.

Toowoomba trainer Mark Saal had taken those race honours with his consistent chaser Van Helsing in 25.32 seconds ahead of Flaming Curacao (trained by Jason Schmidt) and Vixen Cruiser (Joanne Price).

Sharing the podium was Casey Dargusch and son Bailey, from the Golden View Greyhound Complex, the business entity who was paired with Van Helsing and who also shared in the victory spoils, picking up a corporate club package as part of the race promotion.

But, the irony is, within days Saal, a long-time South East Queensland breeder and trainer will send his next litter off to Casey and husband Alan Dargusch to begin their race careers.

“They are a Barcia Bale – Pump It litter, who look very nice,” Saal said.

“There’s no reason why something good shouldn’t come out of that, but you never know.”

Saal also bred the current Zambora Brockie and Babs Kramer litter, with Van Helsing so far the heading the prize money tally from those pups with $39,030 from 29 starts for 11 wins and eight placings.

Also well-performed are litter-mates King Of Cool ($27,600 from 24 starts) and Walk Right in ($24,095 from 27 starts).

“He (Van Helsing) missed the kick, but he stayed out wide and went around them,” Saal said in summation of the run on Saturday night.

“If he had a jockey you would be congratulating him for a good ride.

“He is a pretty strong dog and probably the strongest run-home dog in this race. So, when he came up to second I was confident he would go on with it.

“I am happy with his progression so far, except he just hasn't been able to adapt to Albion Park. He should be almost breaking 30 seconds there (best is 30.11 seconds).

“Eventually he will be OK and adapt to Albion because that's the place where you want to be going at your best. It will come.

“I will probably be aiming for the Ipswich Cup (heats on October 26 and Final on November 2), which will be a bit of a tough ask for him, but if you're not in it you can't win.

“He can probably go about 30.40 seconds here, so you just never know.”

Saal picked up a double on Saturday night when Walk Right In won race eleven. 

The powerful Selena and Mick Zammit kennel also scored a double on Saturday night at Ipswich with their very smart pair, Another Chance and Inevitable.

Ipswich club vice president and prominent trainer, Graham Hall, had plenty of praise for club staff, volunteers and contracted workers who have ensured racing went ahead at the Ipswich Showgrounds facility after infrastructure was severely damaged by a lightning strike during last Tuesday’s race meeting.

“It was certainly a difficult situation for the club to keep racing despite what happened,” Hall said.

“But, you have to do what you have to do to make it work and at the end of the day you just have to pull out all stops.

“You get the club functioning, you get the infrastructure back in place that you need to make it work.

“There was a concern at one stage that the Thursday meeting may not be able to go ahead, but fortunately the technicians were able to get us back on track.

“The staff did an excellent job to keep us racing. There are still some issues that have to be rectified and we are working on those.

“So many people involved with the club are greyhound trainers so we do what has to be done so that the dogs can race and race safely.”