Saal hoping QGOLD is the launching pad for a ‘Pump It’ future

By Pat McLeod

The optimist in Mark Saal predicts that his sometimes speedster Kajagoogoo will blossom late like his mother, Group-winner Pump It.

But, the shrewd punter side of his brain suggests that outcome is most likely a long-shot.

Friday’s QGOLD Final over 431 metres at Ipswich could be a good indicator.

Kajagoogoo (named after an English pop band that rose to fame in the early 1980s) will exit from box three in the $10,010-to-the-winner event.

“He can gallop and his recent form has been quite good, but the problem all along is that he doesn’t jump,” the Toowoomba-based Saal said.

Kajagoogoo has had 24 starts for six wins and nine placings.

“It would be fantastic if he, and the other members of his litter, did follow in their mother’s footprints," Saal said. 

“Pump It only won three of her first 23 races. But, after that she just went ‘bang’.”

In fact Pump It finished with 18 wins and 15 placings from her 58 starts and $126,835 in prizemoney.

One of those wins was the Group 2 Bogie Leigh Futurity at Albion Park.

That victory was in the middle of a seven-win hot streak.

“Yes, she was very good,” says Saal.

“Initially this litter looked very hot as well. When they broke in at Golden View I thought, ‘Wow, what a litter this is going to be’.

“But, they have not gone on as I would have hoped. They have also had all sorts of injuries as well. One thing after another.”

Saal bred the litter and kept four.

One of those that he sold, That’s Nuts, is trained by Ryan Ayre, and began its career showing plenty of promise, but is out injured after tallying nine wins and four placings from 16 outings.

Saal says Kajagoogoo’s biggest chance is as the ‘knockout dog’ on Friday.

“As shown by his heat win last week, he prefers to go around them and certainly has got pace and does finish really strongly,” he said.

“He was actually coming last in the heat and he just circled them all. He has won three out of his last four, but is still green and is a big awkward dog.

“He could be the knockout dog, staying wide. 

“It is a good field with the pick of them being Swift Beach for Darren Russell, out of the one, and the four, Do Run Bandi (trained by Adam McIntosh).

“They both went really well last week winning their heat.”

Saal says he is still ‘really enjoying’ breeding and racing his own.

He has an Aussie Infrared and Babs Kramer litter that are about nine months old and will be the next off his breeding ‘assembly line’.

Babs Kramer has had one previous litter, that are racing now and include the very sharp Van Helsing, who Saal races, but is on the injured list at present.

“I still love it and love being around the dogs,” he says of his lengthy association with greyhounds.

“I never have more than half a dozen and that is more than enough for me. As long as they can gallop a bit and make a good living, I am happy.”