After eight heats conducted around NSW, the 32 semi-finalists have been confirmed for the world’s richest middle-distance greyhound event, the Ladbrokes Country Classic.
Temora staged their heat on Sunday night with the last four qualifiers for next weekend’s semi-finals being decided.
Victorian couple Samantha and Correy Grenfell have had a lot of success in feature events at Riverina tracks in the past, and they had five runners in the Temora qualifier, and managed to get three through to the Country Classic semi-finals.
Paw Vortex led and held off Paw Quinby, with Paw Octavia third. All three advanced along with the Dennis Barnes-trained Nangar Rocket, who finished sixth in the 2024 Country Classic Final.
The semi-finals will be held at Dubbo on March 15, with the $100,000 to the winner final also held at Dawson Park on March 22.
After the completion of seven days and nights of heats, the semi-final qualifiers are: Binalong Time, August Bob, Sin Rap Explode, and Law Book (Nowra), Late Night News, Gets Late Early, Zipping Chaplin, and Screaming Violet (Gosford), Kangaroo Jack, Extraordinaire, Silvey’s Girl, and Zipping Kimble (Richmond), and Go Bears, Firethorn, Party Mode, and Doing Fine (Casino).
Also qualifying were: Ayden’s Warrior, Lucky Blue Book, Trunkey Shearer, and Quince Bale (Dapto), Jungle Johnny, Curyo Dancer, Tex’s Ear, and My Moon Shadow (Ladbrokes Gardens), Flash On By, Poco Rico, Crutching Tommy and Stomping (Dubbo), plus the four qualifiers from Temora.
This year will be the fourth edition of the Country Classic, an event introduced in 2022 by Greyhound Racing NSW to cater for the middle-distance greyhounds and sit in the feature race calendar alongside the Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase for sprinters and the Ladbrokes 715 for stayers.
Dubbo was chosen as the host for the Country Classic and the club has build on the success of the race and race meeting each year, with the night now one of the highlights on the Dubbo social calendar in March every year.
The inaugural winner of the Country Classic was Zipping Kyrgios trained by John and Minnie Finn and owned just down the road by Marty and Fiona Hallinan.
The 2023 Classic was taken out by John and Julie Smart’s Showman Jack, while last year it was a very popular local win when the Jack and Maree Smith-trained Bella Una speared out from box 8 and led all the way to just hold off kennelmate Palawa King.
The Smiths will be chasing back-to-back Country Classics with Flash On By which won the Dubbo heat on Saturday night.
The 2024 NSW Trainer of the Year, Minnie Finn, will be looking for another Country Classic success having qualified three runners for the semi-finals: Poco Rico from Dubbo, Gets Late Early from the Gosford heat, Binalong Time who won at Nowra.
Leading trainers Jodie and Andy Lord have three runners qualified for the Country Classic semi-finals, Law Book from Nowra, and both Ayden’s Warrior and Lucky Blue Book having qualified from the Dapto heat.
The Lords had finalists in the Classic back in 2023 with Bandit Jane finishing fifth and Grim Madara seventh.
