Leading Queensland jockey Zac Purton with greyhound Tricode Star, in which he holds shares.By Glen Atwell
LOOKING for a couple of omen bets at the Cranbourne tricodes meeting on Sunday?
Look no further than the two greyhounds who share their names with the exciting annual event.
Queensland-trained bitches Tricode Queen and Tricode Star will journey to Cranbourne to begin what could become stellar Victorian careers.
The successful dish-lickers have won six races between them and trainer Glenn Smith has a high opinion of the pair.
“Tricode Star has won two races at Wentworth and has gone around in 29.99,” he said.
“Tricode Queen has won races at Albion Park and both dogs should go well at Cranbourne.”
But how did they come to share the same name with Cranbourne’s exciting 23-race event?
The tricode greyhounds are raced by a triplet team of owners who come from greyhound, thoroughbred and harness backgrounds.
Syndicate manager Michael Bryant said half the owners lived in Queensland and the other half in Melbourne.
“The dogs had done all their racing in Queensland and Sydney so when we saw the tricode day it was a perfect opportunity to bring the pair down to Victoria,” he said.
Cranbourne harness trainer Ted Demmler is one member of the large syndicate.
“We’re looking forward to seeing the dogs run in the flesh,” he laughed.
Legendary thoroughbred trainer Peter Moody, who has nominated six gallopers on tricode day, also has a connection with the tricode greyhounds – his wife Sarah is one of the owners.
Smith, who has spent a lifetime training greyhounds in Brisbane, said it was interesting that so many horse trainers wanted to become a part of the greyhound syndicate.
“Harness, gallops and greyhounds – they all wanted to get involved,” he said.
“It might be the first time that all three codes have an interest in one single animal.”
Smith applauded the idea for a tricode meeting.
“It has given our entire syndicate, made up from people from across Australia, a reason to come together on a day where everyone is happy,” he said.
“The harness people can see harness racing, the gallops are on and of course the dogs are coming down from Queensland to race.”
