Superstar trainer Peter Lagogiane admits “he would be a bit of an idiot” not to target The Ladbrokes 715 with emerging stayer Depeche after she equalled the Gosford 603m track record on Tuesday evening.
The sister to Wentworth Park 520m record holder, Dalwhinnie, blasted her way around Gosford to equal the mark of 33.96 set by Like Wildfire in 2023.
‘Gabby’ anointing herself as a greyhound to follow just over a month out from the world’s richest staying race.
“We’ve always thought she had a record in her and we’ve been telling the owners for a while how much potential she has,” Lagogiane said on Wednesday morning.
“She's always shown she is quick, but you never know how they’ll handle the distance until they run it and you see how they pull up. Depeche and her sister Make Them Cry are just so clean winded, it ain’t funny. We do anything with them and they pull up great everytime so we weren't really surprised I guess.”
Depeche will next head to The Gardens over the middle-distance in preparation for a potential tilt at the $250,000 Ladbrokes 715.
“We initially wanted her to go through the Easter Egg series but after a couple of flat Wenty Park runs, we decided against that and 600m racing become the focus,” Lagogiane added.
“She copped a few checks in town a couple of months back and I don’t think she’s forgotten about it. She really needs to be on the arm and she’s better suited out in front doing her own thing.”
Depeche has now won nine races for connections
Lagogiane enjoying the challenge of preparing a dog over distance, something he hasn’t had to do a lot so far in his training career.
“My first ever winner as a trainer was a stayer named Kairel’s Desire. She was a giveaway that I trained up to run 44.01 over 700 at Wenty…which doesn’t sound that quick now,” he laughed.
“But we haven’t had a lot of stayers. French Martini still holds the 500m record at The Gardens and Sicario Beast held the 320m mark at Richmond for a while so Depeche is something different.”
“But all credit needs to go to Dave Brasch who bred her. He’s a standout in that space, he’s a breeding mogul and he got it right. There’s no shortage of royal performances when it comes to this family and Dalwhinnie holds the holy grail of track records as a maiden...that says it all really.”
Brasch, the number one breeding expert in the sport, taking Group-level stayer Rasheda to Aston Dee Bee to produce a litter that is fast becoming the envy of the greyhound world.
“Rasheda won the QLD state distance final when covid was around, she made 14 feature race finals, she ran 41.35 over 710m at Albion Park which is the fastest female time and third fastest time ever at the track…and she’s turned into a great producer,” Brasch said.
“I still own part of Make Them Cry and she has been pretty unlucky in a few feature finals. We reared her along with Depeche and Hoshino and he could have been the best of them until he got hurt. Dalwhinnie is the brother and obviously he needs no introduction either.”
“We’ve bred again with Rasheda, this time to Fernando Bale. Those pups are two months old and I’ve had all sorts of enquiries about them as well. We’re still debating whether we breed again because she’s eight now and even though she’s still full of life, this could be her last go at it.”
The heats of The Ladbrokes 715 will be held at The Gardens on April 24, with the final run on May 2.
