For years upon years, Central West stalwarts Dennis and Ann Barnes have been travelling North to Queensland in the hope of securing some of chasing’s biggest trophies.
They’ve come close on several occasions, but until last night, they’d never tasted victory in a Group 1 feature final at Albion Park.
Enter Nangar Gypsy.
The greyhound with an affinity for Brisbane loam broke the draught and handed the Barnes kennel a maiden Group 1 triumph in the $100,000 Golden Sands final (600m).
“We’ve been coming up here for years and years. We’ve been in a fair few finals and we’ve never won a big one so it rates highly,” Barnes said.
“It’s very satisfying because we’ve been chasing a Group 1 races but they’re hard to win. We’ve thought we had good chances here and there and it never paid off but I just rapt with her effort. She was gutsy, real gutsy and the win was enormous.”
Nangar Gypsy (centre) with Dennis Barnes took her career earnings to over $200,000 with the Group 1 Golden Sands win
The only NSW competitor in the race jumped well from Box 1 but she was soon annoyed out of the lead by second favourite, Gold Scotch.
“When Anthonys went past her, I thought she couldn’t come back from there. Apparently they had 70ml of rain the night before and then we had a bit more leading into the race so I knew the track was pretty sticky and heavy on the inside so I thought she might have got bogged down…but she proved me wrong,” he added.
The daughter of Aston Dee Bee x Nangar Silk grinding her way back to the front and fending off Gold Scotch and the fast-finishing Tagovailoa to claim the biggest race of her career by ¾ of a length in 34.97.
The 20-time winner heading back to Cudal on Saturday for a well-earned rest before connections lock in her next target.
“We might freshen her up for a run at the Gold Bullion over 520m. That’s certainly not set in concrete but she just seems to love the place [six wins from eight starts at Albion Park], she comes out good and runs well here everytime,” Barnes said.
“In saying that, I do think she’s a better 600m dog and if we go to the Gold Bullion, we’re going to meet some class over 520m. We had tremendous success over 600m with Nangar Rocket and there are quite a few of those feature races coming up as well so that could also be an option.”
In the next two months, the Ladbrokes Summer Six-Hundred (Gosford), The Clarence (Grafton), The Richmond (Casino) and the Ladbrokes Country Classic (final at Dubbo) will all be contested over the middle distance.
Nangar Gypsy (red) claimed the first Group 1 win for the Barnes kennel since Nangar Lucy took out the 2023 Peter Mosman Opal
Nangar Gypsy continues the run of hot form for the litter after her brother Nangar Jim recently broke the Sale 510m track record on multiple occasions.
Her sisters, Heidi Mcgraw (Grafton Maiden Classic) and Packham Silk (Goulburn Fireball), have also claimed feature race wins in the last 18-months.
Also at Albion Park on Thursday night was Group-level star Good Odds Cobber.
The reigning Ladbrokes Dapto Megastar champion taking out a heat of the Group 2 Golden Ticket in 30.04, the second-fastest time of the night.
The Frank Hurst-trained runner forced to do it the hard way from the widest draw in his four-dog heat, eventually claiming a narrow 0.75 win over the talented Lakeview Emily.
“The dog who ran second [Lakeview Emily] has been running outstanding times in Victoria. She’s gone 28.9 at Sandown and 29.5 at The Meadows, so to knock her off was a great effort,” Hurst said on Friday morning.
“It was a really hard run. He was three wide through the first corner and had to do it tough on a heavy, rain affected track too…tell me he’s not the best dog racing around at the moment.”
The son of Fernando Bale x Goods Odds Meghan setting up a date with Smooth Plane in next week’s match race series where the fastest winner of four different one on one events will take home the title.
“Smooth Plane got Box 1 so he’ll go from Box 3 but I’m still pretty confident. If he had Box 1 he’d be off and gone and they wouldn’t get near him but he can come from behind too. I think Smooth Plane goes wide on the first turn up there so hopefully we’re sitting right behind him and we can rail through,” he added.
“They’ve met twice before that I know of. We finished third in the Brisbane Cup final and Smooth Place came fifth. We also raced him in the Brisbane Cup Prelude and beat him by three lengths.”
Good Odds Cobber has won three of six at Albion Park with a low mark of 29.74
Hurts also hinting at a debut for the next litter out of super brood bitch Goods Odds Meghan by Aston Rupee.
“We’ve got four of them at home, they’re about 17-months old and they’ll start in the next couple of weeks. We just need to sit down and work out what sort of races might suit them to kick things off,” Hurst added.
The winner of the Golden Ticket will be the fastest greyhound across the four two-dog match races and will also take home $60,000. The victor will also gain direct access into the Group 1 Gold Bullion final at Albion Park on January 30.
