Greyhound Racing NSW (GRNSW) Chief Executive Officer Tony Mestrov is encouraging all of NSW to get behind his organisation’s slot representative, Jungle Deuce, in Saturday night’s inaugural $750,000 TAB Phoenix.
The Jack Smith-trained Jungle Deuce will represent not only GRNSW, but the NSW public having been voted into the slot as The People’s Pup through a joint promotion with the Daily Telegraph.
“Regardless of the result on Saturday night, I firstly want to say that I am extremely proud of Jack,” the CEO said. “He has been a tremendous advocate for the industry - particularly here in NSW - not only during this whole process, but the way he has gone over and above to promote the industry through the voting period and then since the selection of Jungle Deuce. It has been amazing.
“Jack has been around greyhound racing for a long time and had plenty of very good dogs, he’s a laidback character who calls it like it is, but I’ve noticed there is a genuine excitement with him heading into this race, and wouldn’t it great if Jungle Deuce could win the inaugural running of the TAB Phoenix.
“The people of Forbes - with some gentle encouragement from Jack’s wife Maree and daughter Mel - rallied behind Jungle Deuce, and were instrumental in a late surge that got the greyhound over the line and into the GRNSW slot, but on Saturday it won’t just be the people of Forbes supporting the dog, I think everyone in NSW should be cheering on Jungle Deuce.
“And let’s not forget fellow NSW trainer Ian Gilders who will have Billy Creek coming out of box 1 in the Phoenix. Best of luck to Ian and connections of Billy Creek - who will race in the GBOTA slot - and surely it’s not too much to ask for a NSW quinella?”
While he has spent the past week travelling back and forth to Melbourne to trial and for the box draw, fulfilling media commitments, and also been busy with some charity work as well, Smith says “everything is on track” with Jungle Deuce, he “just has to get out of those traps.”
The NSW pair will exit boxes one (Billy Creek) and two (Jungle Deuce) following last Sunday’s box draw, and Smith knows the start, and who finds the fence first out of the NSW pair, will be crucial.
"Billy holds the key to how well we do. We have to beat him to the fence to the first turn,” Smith said. “We rely on dogs to take us into the race, and Billy is a run on dog as well, so we need to beat him off the mat, or beat him to the first corner.
“Let’s hope we can do it, but if not, I’ll be cheering for Ian’s dog if we’re behind him.”
The town of Forbes are right behind their dog for the Phoenix, and courtesy of a promise made during voting, Smith will shout happy hour for the patrons in the Sports Bar at the Forbes Inn between 8pm and 9pm when the race is scheduled.
“I’m hoping that they have plenty to celebrate after the race is run,” Mestrov said.
“This has been a very unique year for greyhound racing in NSW, and as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown in NSW, we were forced to postpone our premier event, the world’s richest greyhound race the TAB Million Dollar Chase, but we have still achieved so much in 2021, and set new benchmarks across all facets of the industry.
“A win for NSW in what is now Victoria’s richest race would be the icing on the cake for our participants, and what better way to head into Christmas and the New Year than with NSW sitting comfortably atop the greyhound racing tree in Australia.”
