When Party Mode became the fastest qualifier for Thursday's $25,000 to the winner The Richmond final at Casino, he was conditioned by a father and son training team with a combined 85 years in the sport.
Trained by 56-year-old Craig Gardoll and his 77-year-old father Reg, Party Mode led all the way to win his heat last Thursday by five lengths in a best of the meeting 35.32.
Party Mode came from box three to win his heat by five lengths but Reg Gardoll believes the dog will relish having box seven in the final.
"I think he goes better from a wide draw than he does from the inside,'' Reg said.
"I've had a trainer's licence for 55 years and Craig has been training for 30 years, we go back together to when we were based in Dubbo.
"Craig does all the hard yakka these days and when the dogs are racing in Queensland he takes them from our kennels in the Northern Rivers.''
An added bonus for The Richmond finalists is that the first four across the line will automatically earn a start in the March 15 semi-finals of the Dubbo Country Classic, which boasts a $100,000 to the winner final a week later.
Party Mode with connections after winning a heat of The Richmond
Honk Honk will be set for the $25,000 to the winner group 3 Simply Limelight New Sensation after notching her sixth win in a dozen starts last Thursday night at Wentworth Park.
Honk Honk handled her tricky box eight draw well and after trailing brilliant front-runner Canya Sapphire to the home bend, finished strongly to win by just over a length in 29.74.
After the race Tony Mason, a third generation greyhound trainer, said: "I was confident that although she is a good railer, she wouldn't crash to the fence and would run straight to the first corner.
"The New Sensation heats on March 15 are for greyhounds whelped on or after December 1, 2022, so being a February, 2023 whelping, Honk Honk will be among the most experienced runners.''
Mason admits Honk Honk's unusual name has grown on him, thanks to the bitch's excellent form.
"She was good from when she began being educated, she was a fierce chaser immediately and in one of her first trials she clocked 29.30 at The Gardens.
"I told the owner Owen Cottrill how good she was going to be so he needed to find a suitable name for her.
"When he informed me her name was Honk Honk I was filthy. He explained he had applied for Beep Beep, as in the Roadrunner cartoon, but when that was unavailable he opted for Honk Honk."
"But the more she wins the better the name Honk Honk sounds.''
Honk Honk has now won six of 12 starts for connections
Jodie Lord trained four winners at Wentworth Park on Thursday night but husband Andy admitted that their kennel's amazing hat-trick of runaway wins posted within 39 minutes and in very fast times was "pretty special.''
Happy Bandit led throughout in race two in 29.54 while 21 minutes later Paua Of Cinda was an all-the-way winner in 29.42.
Aftter another 18 minutes Taormina wasn't headed in 29.45, with the trio of wins totalling over 30 lengths.
