Narralee is a pup that could earn Stephen Creighton his first Group victory when she lines up in the Group 2 Lion Quality Products Warragul Cup this Friday night.
Creighton has been involved in greyhound racing for more than forty years but has never tasted group success coming closest with Diamond Salute who ran fourth in the 2009 Warragul Cup.
Along with partner Melissa O’Keefe and her daughter Amy the Creighton operation is based on family and has been producing fantastic results of late.
Narralee was bred, whelped, reared, broken in and is trained on Creighton’s Giffard West – in between Traralgon and Sale – property. It has been a labour of love that could earn the family their first group victory.
“This would be the first group greyhound we would have had,” he said “we put a lot of research into her breeding and all the greyhounds from the litter have won or are doing well.”
“Ours is a real family business we breed a small number of litters and pride ourselves on the presentation and care for our greyhounds.
“Amy (O’Keefe) is really the heartbeat of our operation she is always out with the greyhounds and does a lot of work.”
Narralee is the youngest greyhound in the Warragul Cup field hacing just turned two but showed tremendous early dash leading all the way in her heat to win in 25.743 secs.
“Her best attributes are her chasing ability and her early speed.
“She is a very versatile little greyhound and if she can begin at her best they will have a touhgh time catching her.”
The greyhound has the temperament of a champion too and is no fuss and business-like when it comes to racing.
“She is a really professional greyhound and never plays up, we’ve had no issues with her at all.”
Creighton has even received offers to buy Narralee but has declined because he knows the ability she has. The operation is small and kept in-house on purpose with Creighton not advertising his greyhounds or his services.
Box seven shouldn’t pose any difficulties according to the trainer because ‘if she’s good enough she would be able to do it from any box.’
Narralee is up against tough opposition in Friday night’s final – worth $45,000 to-the-winner – and has been marked as a $21.00 outsider.
Geelong and Ballarat Cup winner Luca Neveelk (box one) is currently $2.30 with TAB while fastest qualify Ride The Rails (4) is $3.20.
Group 2 Lion Quality Products Warragul Cup Box Draw
Related content:
Warragul Cup heats review
WATCHDOG’s Extrended Form for the 2015 Warragul Cup