Saahd (2) and Hard Urned Burst (5) dead heated in an exciting finish for first in the final of the Healesville Puppy Championship on Sunday, 1st of June. The favorite Jonny Black Fox (6) nearly made it a three way tie, missing out by a mere 0.002 of second.
In the past the race would have been declared a triple dead heat but recent changes to GRV policy means that races are timed to a thousandth of a second. Saahd and Hard Urned Burst finished the race in 19.371sec whilst Johnny Black Fox ran home in 19.373sec.
Winning trainers Gary Ennis (Saahd) and Darren Pattinson (Hard Urned Burst) were thrilled by the close finish and excited about each pups future prospects. Newcomer to the training game, Darren Pattinson was elated, “for him to be doing this at 22 months of age against seasoned dogs like Jonny Black Fox is just a real feather in his cap, we will take our time with him but I’m sure there will be plenty more wins for this bloke down the track. He copped a couple of decent bumps early on but his mid-race speed is his asset which got him this result.”
Proud TRICODE Syndicate (Hard Urned Burst) manager Ryan Pearce said after the race, “we started this journey 11 years ago with his grand-dam Redburst, she even won a race here for us when it was a non-TAB meeting. Now the third generation of this family is still winning races for us and it’s a really special feeling. The weather wasn’t kind today but my family and I have had a great day. We might just come back to have a go at the Healesville Cup in September now!”
The $9,940 Healesville Puppy Championship is a 350m special event open only to dogs whelped on or after 1/1/2012.
Official photo: Race 6, Sunday 1st June, 2014
