STAR Tasmanian greyhound Damek returned to somewhere near his brilliant best at Tattersall’s Park in Hobart last night with an emphatic all-the-way win in the Barry Heawood Hobart Thousand Prelude over 461 metres.
Damek began brilliantly from box one and gave nothing else a chance on his way to an effortless 7-1/4 length win over Centennial Bark with Mojito over a length away third.
The Peter Phillips-trained dog had his colours lowered at his previous outing on the track when a victim of interference from box six.
But with the aid of the inside box he was able to hug the rails to the top turn and delivered a slick first split of 5.10 seconds that was close to the time that took him to the first of his track records last year.
Damek produced a second split of 11.06s and stopped the clock at 25.99s.
With the heats of the Group 1 Hobart Thousand next Thursday night Damek has come good at the right time.
Bergermeister broke Damek’s track record in July when he clocked 25.71s and that dog also returned to form on Tuesday with an effortless win in an invitation over 461m clocking a slick 25.95s.
Damek is clearly the best performed dog on the Hobart track in years with this latest triumph his 20th from 25 attempts.