When Allan Hilzinger sat down to watch his star sprinter Integrity Shirl go around in the final of the Casino Beef Week Cup final on Friday night, the former GBOTA CEO had one major concern.
“I was nervous that Maxine Dutton would cross her, get to the rail and that’d be it,” Hilzinger said.
“[Casino race caller] Mark Arandale always says if you can cross, lead and rail at Casino, you’ll win nine times out of ten…and because Maxine Dutton goes exceptionally well from out wide and goes really quick early, I was a pretty worried.”
“She’s the 300m track record holder at Casino and she can absolutely hum, but I thought she might get tired…or at least I hoped she would.”
And tire she did.
After flying out of Box 7 and crossing the field in the $10,000 feature, Maxine Dutton had the race in her keeping.
She’d put three lengths on the chasing pack as they went past the halfway mark of the race, but the pre-race favourite, Integrity Shirl, was still in striking distance of the longtime leader.
“It wasn’t until the 600m boxes that I thought “she’s coming now”,” Hilzinger added.
“I was still nervous though because Integrity Shirl rails so hard. I thought the leader would stay on the rail and she wouldn’t have a way through. But Maxine Dutton rolled off the fence and our girl is strong so she pushed her way through and got up. I dare say that’s the best win of her career.”
Integrity Shirl stopping the clock in 27.49 to beat home Maxine Dutton [Donald Watts] by 0.75 lengths, with Kooringa Rafael back in third for Stephen Casey.
The Northern Rivers flyer extending her winning streak to four straight, with 11 overall victories from 25 starts for trainer Rob Andrews.
Hilzinger overjoyed with the result and lighting up social media with a celebration for the ages.
“Looking at the video now I’m thinking “oh, what am I doing?” but I’m passionate and even though it’s not the biggest prizemoney race in the world, this is a race Robbie [Andrews] really wanted to win and I know it means a lot to him,” Hilzinger added.
“We trialled her at The Q not long back and we had always planned to take her up there to race but when Robbie got back from that trial he said he really wanted to win the Beef Week Cup and the Donny Waldron first before she tackled the good Brisbane dogs.”
“Well, now she’s won both races…so next stop ‘The Q’ I reckon.”
Integrity Shirl finishing over the top of Maxine Dutton. Photo: Lisa Van Der Stok
Hilzinger thrilled with Andrews’ training performance of ‘Amazon’, with the big race success coming almost three years since the owner/trainer combination won the inaugural Thunderbolt title at Grafton with Integrity Mate.
“This has been a big work in progress for us and it’s probably why it means so much,” Hilzinger said.
“About seven-years ago I got back into the dogs with a bloke named Darren Russell. He was training my dogs but thought they’d be better suited racing at Casino so he pointed me in the direction of Robbie.”
“We decided to make a proper go of it, so I built a greyhound property up here, Robbie lives on it and does all the hard work with the greyhounds and ‘Amazon’ is actually the first feature race winner we’ve bred, whelped, reared and now raced. We’ve bought plenty of pups but it’s a different sense of satisfaction going through the whole process.”
The feat even more remarkable considering ‘Amazon’ was left temporarily paralysed by a tick at an early age, with some quick intervention from Andrews and the local vet the only reason she’s still alive and thriving today.
Trainer Rob Andrews with Integrity Shirl and Casino RSM representative, Frank McKee. Photo: Lisa Van Der Stok
