A LEGENDARY breeder's desire to see Warrnambool host its own greyhound oaks and derby is coming to fruition.
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Barry Smith, who is behind the iconic Mepunga line, has long wanted to see the races added to Warrnambool's racing calendar.
Warrnambool's inaugural Mepunga Oaks final is scheduled for Thursday night, while the Lightning Frank Derby will be run and won on Thursday week.
The winner is primed to pocket a cool $7,500 and the choice of a semen straw from either Mepunga Blazer or Mepunga Cruzer, two of Smith's high-flying stud dogs.
Second place, meanwhile, will be gifted the remaining straw to complement a $2,000 prize.
Smith said the race was about giving back to the industry.
With Blazer going so well at stud, I thought we'd get some good dogs entered and we have.
- Barry Smith
"I've been on the bandwagon for Warrnambool to have an oaks and derby for young dogs," he said.
"One way of being able to hurry it up was talking to (stud masters) Angela (Langton) and Jeff (Britton) about it and I said I was willing to donate a couple of straws if they were happy with that.
"They were more than happy to do that. It's not so much advertising for me, it's putting back to the dogs. With Blazer going so well at stud, I thought we'd get some good dogs entered and we have.
"There's some really good racing. I know in one of the heats, the one featuring (south-west owned) My Girl Kizzy about five dogs went over the line together.
"You can't get much closer than that."
Mepunga Blazer's offspring collected more than $1.1 million in 2020, announcing the Great Ocean Road-bred star as one of the country's hottest stud dogs.
"(Blazer) has had an enormous start to stud," he said.
"He's done that with only limited numbers of pups running. We can only look forward to him getting better and better because he's had a lot of bitches at stud.
"Numbers of pups are what is going to give you those wins."
Cruzer, meanwhile, battled injury throughout his racing career but was described by Britton as "the fastest dog I've ever had a lead on".
Smith is confident that potential will ensure a successful career at stud, but concedes he'll find it harder to attract breeders given his four-race career on track.
Linda Gore, who is based in Warrnambool and owns My Girl Kizzy, told The Standard she was well-drawn for the oaks in box three.
"That suits her well, she likes the rail," she said.
"That's much better. It looks like a lot of the early speed is out in box six, seven and eight so hopefully she can stay out of their way.
"If she gets to the lead, they'll have to catch her."
Gore said the two-year-old bitch, trained by Britton just north of Geelong, was a tenacious chaser.
"She can be a bit slow out of the boxes but she will run down absolutely anything," she said.
"She's a really strong little bitch. She'll push through anything to get to that lure."
The Mepunga Oaks will jump at 7.39pm.
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