Tasracing

Star Western Australian greyhound Tommy Shelby will start favourite in Tasmania’s only Group One race of any code, the Ladbrokes Hobart Thousand on Thursday night.

The Steve Withers prepared chaser ran a slick 25.48s in a solo trial on 3 December, before obliterating his rivals in last week’s heat by over six lengths when recording 25.45s, just 0.1s outside Stanley Gordon’s track record of 25.44s that was recorded in October 2019.

Tommy Shelby, the winner of 22 of his 33 starts, is still chasing his first Group 1 win after being placed in many Group One races, the most recent of those was two starts ago when third in the Melbourne Cup at Sandown Park.

His trainer Steve Withers acknowledges the quality of tonight’s field.

“It has brought together an excellent field, Shadow Mist is in there and Tiggerlong Tonk is a superstar, and there is a host of locals in there that are all capable in their own right, so no mistakes can be afforded in the final,” said Withers when talking on TABRadio in Western Australia during the week.

After the slick run in the heat, there wasn’t a lot of time to celebrate.

“The lure didn’t really get away from Tommy so well after the race, and he ran into the catching pen gate, so there wasn’t too much excitement after the race, I was quickly around there to see how he was and I may have given a few people advice on how to look after dogs in the catching pen,” the trainer said.

Punters that had taken the short odds on offer before the heat had a slight concern when it was announced that Tommy had eaten his bedding in the kennels before the race, but one person who wasn’t worried was Withers.

“It is very custom for Tommy, he gets very excited on race day and he gave his bed a flogging in the kennel, there was a few concerned and by the time I got upstairs and had my first beer I reckon about half a dozen people were getting worked up and excited about it, but I reassured them that’s what he does.

“I told them all it was a good sign as when he rips up his bed he normally wins, and it turned out right,” explained the trainer.

Tommy Shelby has drawn out in box eight on Thursday night, a box that he has started from on six occasions for three wins and two placings.

“I’m never one to be the best of anything, and I was assured at home that if I rang home on FaceTime that my six-year-old daughter McKenzie would choose the box and do the right thing by us, but Christmas may have got cancelled for her,” laughed Withers.

“The locals keep assuring me that box eight is a great box in Hobart, I can’t quite come to the concept it is a great box,” added the trainer.

Connections of Tommy Shelby donate 10% of his prizemoney earnings each month to a different charity, and this month connections are contributing to the bushfire appeal.

Tasracing’s form expert Mike Clarke has done a runner by runner preview on all of the runners for the Group 1 feature that can be viewed here, and he has also done the full meeting preview which can be found on the FORMPLUS section of this site.

TasracingTV will live host the feature meeting on tasracing.com.au with Matt Reid and Brennan Ryan heading up the coverage while popular greyhound form expert Jason Lincoln will be trackside for Sky Racing.

Limited tickets will be sold at the gate on a first in first served basis with tickets also available at goracingtasmania.com.au.

The Hobart Thousand is race eight on Thursday night’s card at 21:49 with the first of 10 races commencing at 19:19.

Watch Tommy Shelby fly around Hobart in his heat from box four: