Boody hoping for an upset in Rockhampton QGOLD heats

By Wayne Heming

Central Queensland trainer Ken Boody is hoping one of his three runners in the QGOLD heats at Rockhampton on Wednesday night can replicate his upset winner Showtime Pompom in 2024.

The QGOLD races are restricted to greyhounds bred in Queensland and offer increased prizemoney as an incentive to support the local industry.

Boody will be represented by Tijuana Twinkle (box five) and Mo’at, who has gained a run out of box eight following Bacalar's scratching in heat one, while his other runner, Arnie Ferrari, jumps from box two in the second heat.

Boody wasn’t too confident about his runner's chances, but he has been wrong before.

“I’m not holding a lot of hope. When you’ve been doing this for a while you tend to get an idea of how they’ll perform, but sometimes it goes different than you think," Boody said. 

One of those times was the QGOLD Final staged at the Rockhampton track late last year, which Boody won with Showtime Pompom.

“I didn’t think she could win, but I put her in it even though it wasn’t her ideal distance,” Boody explained.

“She got to the front and she ended up holding on to win it.”

Heath Ardle, who has a great record in QGOLD races, has enlisted the aid of a neighbour with a low-loader truck to help him get six dogs, including his kennel star, Jimmy Roo (who will run in race six from box seven) through the flood waters in Townsville for the Rockhampton meeting. 

“I’ve got my car on a low-loader, that is as far as I got,” Ardle said on Tuesday.

“There’s a bit of water on the other side of Inkerman, between Ayr and Bowen but after that, it should be smooth sailing.”

Ardle said a few years back he had a similar experience going to Grafton.

“My neighbour across from the farm is helping me out. We look after each other up here in the country,” Ardle said.