Mackenna warming up for Queensland winter assault

By Jordan Gerrans

A flying box to box from reigning Golden Easter Egg champion Mackenna has trainer Michelle Sultana enthusiastic about what lies ahead for her visiting team in the 2024 Queensland Winter Greyhound Racing Carnival.  

On the same evening as the feature QGOLD Finals program, the Brisbane Greyhound Racing Club hosted a glut of top dogs for box to boxes ahead their carnival campaigns on Thursday. 

Mackenna’s spin around the Albion Park track set plenty of tongues wagging as the Group 1 winner went 5.45 seconds in the first split before running home in 11.53 seconds.

The first split consists of an 83 metre run with 218 metres considered the second split at the premier Brisbane track.

The 12-time winner from just 18 career starts is in town for the carnival and will kick-off her campaign in Thursday’s Group 1 Flying Amy heats.

The NSW-based Sultana arrived in the Sunshine State earlier this week with a team of 10 greyhounds with her star black bitch in Mackenna the headline act.

“We were really happy with how she went on Thursday night,” Sultana said.

“She went really good. I am not familiar with all the box to box times but they tell me that is pretty good. She has pulled up enormous this morning so it is all good.”

The age-restricted Group 1 Flying Amy Classic over 520 metres kick-starts the carnival from Thursday with heats before the $225,000 Final early in June.

The majority of interstate trainers are searching to find kennels when they plan a northern carnival trip every winter.

That is not the case for Sultana and her training partner in Darryl Thomas as a couple of years ago they purchased a property at South Maclean.

With The Q soon to become the home of Queensland greyhound racing, the team thought it made sense to have a base near the new facility.

They plan to be in town for six weeks over the carnival with an eye to being more regular visitors in the coming years.

The kennel have not been annual northern visitors in recent campaigns but have come up at times, including with the retired chaser Drink Schooners.

“I wanted to get up here, get the dogs acclimatized and get them settled in,” Sultana said.

“We will stay for a six-week stint over the carnival hopefully if we can progress through the series’.

"In the coming years we are likely to use this property more so.

“We have not had many dogs up this way over the years, we have had a few for the distance races and have been up a couple of times for the State Of Origin.

“We have not really had a big campaign up here before and it was something we really wanted to do. We had the opportunity to do it so we decided to give it a go.”

It is an exciting time for the Sultana and Thomas team after Mackenna’s special Easter Egg triumph became their greatest victory so far in the sport. 

Mackenna is the star of the kennel at the moment but they also have a quality supporting cast to their big-name bitch.

Here Comes Milli, Black Tsunami, Fear The Dragon, Another Choice, One Hot Bandit and Midnight Spritz are also in the travelling party.

Here Comes Milli and Black Tsunami also got a look at Albion Park on Thursday night.

Sultana’s Black Tsunami is a recent Group 3 placegetter in the The Ambrosoli at Wentworth Park while Fear The Dragon is a promising young dog.

The rest of the crew are under Sultana’s watch on a caretaker basis from other kennels.

One Hot Bandit is a Group 3 winner and has made several Group Finals in recent months while Midnight Spritz claimed the Group 3 Ladies Bracelet at Wentworth Park earlier this month. 

Here Comes Milli scored in the Group 1 Sapphire Crown at Sandown at her last start.

“The main goal was that they could all see the track hopefully a couple of times,” Sultana said.

“The aim was to get them settled in and see how they go. It’s a pretty good honour to take on these great dogs from other top trainers.”