PROMISING young greyhound Three Tradies staked his claim on next week’s Breeders Classic final with an impressive win in his semi-final in Launceston on Monday night.
The Leigh Wood-trained pup is only 20 months old but handled the assignment like a more experienced chaser.
His only other race start produced a third in a juvenile at Devonport on March 14 which was three days after he won his Breeders Classic qualifying heat in a time of 29.96s.
On Monday night he clocked a time of 30.06s to suggest he will be very hard to beat in the final.
Crashin’ Koby did a good job to finish as close as he did given the trouble he found early in the race.
Good box manners proved the telling factor in the first of the four semi-finals.
Buckle Up Doug carried the red vest to victory and it was his good manners at the start that gave him the edge over his more fancied rivals.
The Gary Johnson-trained dog won his qualifying heat in one of the slowest times (31.10s) but he improved greatly to stop the clock at 30.25s with splits of 5.18s and 17.84s.
Bosco staked his claim on the Classic title with an emphatic win in his semi-final.
The Butch Deverell-trained dog held the lead at the first turn and in the back stretch he set up a winning break.
Bosco is owned by Brian and Justin Crawford who enjoyed a lot of success with Big Moose that won 50 and was placed 21 times from 87 starts.
Bosco (Collide-Edan Rose) has started only four times from two wins and as many minor placings.
The last of four semi-finals produced a dead-heat between the odds-on favourite Miki Moto Mike and Buckle Up Dozer that was back in from $12 to start the third elect at $7.50.
Buckle Up Dozer began well from box four and led at the first turn while Miki Moto Mike was slowly away as was the heavily-backed Ukulele Man that was crunched on the Tote into $2.90 that forced the favourite’s Tote odds out to $2.
Miki Moto Mike gained the upper hand from Buckle Up Dozer down the back stretch and when the favourite led turning for home he looked home but Buckle Up Dozer came again to draw level right on the line.
The winners and second-placed runners in each semi-final progress to the final.