Decades-old family friendship leads to Rising Stars victory

By Pat McLeod

A decades-long, greyhound-based friendship between the Dacey and Tzouvelis families has led to a thrilling victory to Daysea’s Rory in the Rising Stars Final at Albion Park on Thursday night.

The win not only catapulted the promising youngster into strong contention for next week’s lucrative Queensland Flame feature, but also temporarily halted the winning run of boom visitor, Dalwhinnie.

The Tom Tzouvelis-trained and Claude Dacey-owned Daysea’s Rory flew from box four and led for the entire journey to win by a length in a 29.79 second personal best. 

Dalwhinnie (trained by Bill Butler), had to negotiate plenty of interference for most of the race after exiting box eight, but still found the line strongly in second place, with Tzouvelis’ Prim And Precise third.

The Park Ridge-based Tzouvelis, who has celebrated a feature-laden run over the past 18 months, explained how Daysea’s Rory and litter brother Daysea’s Chief had only recently come into his kennel.

“Claude has been a close family friend of ours for a long time,” Tzouvelis said.

“Recently he told me that Daysea’s Rory had trialled very well at Grafton leading up to the Million Dollar Chase, but then didn't run up to expectations.

“He asked me whether I was interested in having a go with both the dogs.

"I definitely was because they have a lot of ability.

“As I have often said to people, checking dogs is my forte. I am a better checker than I am a trainer and discovered that Daysea’s Rory had a problem or two.

“He has a testicle issue, but the main problem was a groin injury and we just have been working on that constantly since he arrived at our kennels.

“I thought he would go well but not as well as that. I am just so happy for Claude, he will be over the moon.”

Tzouvelis also had plenty of praise for Dalwhinnie.

“How good is he,” Tzouvelis said.

“He got held up and held up, ran into plenty of trouble, but was still chasing hard. In fact, I thought he was still going to get us at the end. He is pretty special.”

Tzouvelis also said he believed Daysea’s Rory deserved a place in next Thursday night’s $60,000-to-the-winner Queensland Flame.

“Yes, I believe he does deserve a place in The Flame,” Tzouvelis said.

“He went five lengths quicker than the free for all race, which was made up of dogs that will contest the Flame.

“For The Meadows you need dogs with early speed and he has definitely got that. He would be a great representative for the state.”

The winner of the Queensland Flame gains entry into the gala slot race, The Phoenix, at The Meadows on December 21.

Evergreen Group-class sprinter Magistrate (Greg Stella) proved he will be a major threat in the Flame with a dominant win in Thursday night’s best eight race, which had a strong Flame flavour.

The Queensland Flame field will be named on Monday and Stella confirmed after Thursday night’s win that his kennel star would be nominated.

“The plan is to nominate him (Magistrate) for the Flame. He ran third to Jay Is Jay and Get Carter last year in that race," Stella said. 

“He got the start and that is what wins him his races. I believe he is going as well now as ever.”

Tyson Barton’s middle distance star Fahey’s Magic began her prep for a defence of the Group 2 Golden Sands over 600 metres (Final at Albion Park on January 9) with a relaxed win in a masters 520 metre event on Thursday night.

The Magic Sprite and Amber Ale chaser has a stellar record at ‘The Creek’, winning the Golden Sands in January and returning in June to take out the Group 3 Cyndie’s Magic over 600 metres.

“She came on season and needed a good break anyway,” the Casino-based Barton said of Fahey’s Magic’s three-month absence from the track.

“Hopefully we will be back for the Golden Sands and then see what happens after that, but that is our main target. 

“She may now qualify for Masters, but she hasn't lost anything other than a little bit of that early pace, but she is stronger. She still wants to race, that is for sure.”

There was plenty of young talent on show on Thursday night at Albion Park with four heats of The Spark held.

The Northern NSW-based father-and-son team of Reg and Craig Gardoll took out two of the heats with their in-form pair Party Mode, winner of the recent Casino Cup, and Spirit Boy, who took the honours in the Mid North Coast Cup at Taree on November 6.

Reg said Spirit Boy had a couple of key assets.

“He has got early pace and that is always a big advantage,” Reg said.

“He also has a fantastic temperament.”

Reg also said following next week’s The Spark Final, the kennel would probably target the Queensland Derby heats on January 2.

Jeff Crawford said his young bitch Arbela had passed the ‘acid test’ with her heat win.

“She has put the writing on the board with her last couple of starts, but that was probably the acid test,” Crawford said.

“Her early speed put her at the pointy end early on and she was able to use that lead down the back and was able to hang on for a good, tough win.

“That was also a personal best (30.22 seconds) and she has improved every start when she has had things go her way.”

The fourth Spark heat was won by John McCarthy’s Affluent in 29.95 seconds. 

In one other highlight of Thursday night’s Albion Park meeting, distance champion Valpolicella, showed she is back in form with an impressive eight-and-three-quarters-of-a-length win in a free for all 710 metre event in 41.72 seconds.