Thompson's Young Guns can make presence felt at Rocky

By Alex Nolan

Trainer Clinton Thompson admits his two hopes face an uphill battle to win Wednesday’s Rockhampton Young Guns Final but is confident they can make their presence felt.

Clinton, who trains in conjunction with his wife Juanita at Tungamull, will box comeback chaser City Way and the highly promising Rybolt, in boxes four and seven respectively.

Both endured torrid runs in last week’s heats where they overcame early trouble to run slashing seconds and book their place in the Final.

Both City Way and Rybolt started their racing careers in the Tony Apap kennel and are from the second talented litter out of Deja Vu Rock, a daughter of Fernando Bale whose first litter combined to score 61 race victories.

City Way resumed from a 93-day lay-off when winning a novice race at Rocky on February 1 in 23.82 seconds before finding trouble from box six in last week’s second heat.

It was a similar result last week for Rybolt who, after stepping slowly from box five, found trouble early and sailed home to finish 4.25 lengths off eventual winner Pitter Patter.

Rybolt boasts a personal best time of 23.35 seconds over the course and distance, which is just a shade outside the 23.31 second personal best of likely favourite, Ring Me.

“They both got pretty good checks, but they have both come through it good,” Clinton said.

“It’s going to be hard to beat Ring Me after it drew box one.

“Rybolt isn’t the best beginner but once he gets going he has a lot of speed.

“He has run pretty good time here and if he can do that he can go close, he’s getting more confident with every start.

“City Way is more suited to the 510 metres up here but we put him in this series because he’s a good dog and class can take him a long way.

“We’ll step him up to the 510 metres soon with a view to aiming him at the Ipswich Auction Series over 520 metres, Rybolt will travel down next week to contest heats of the Auction sprint series over 410 metres.”

Clinton, who has been a thoroughbred trainer since the 1980s, said he had enjoyed making the transition to training greyhounds in recent years.

He said Deja Vu Rock’s progeny had been a big reason for the kennel’s success.

She has another litter by Just The Best on the ground now and Clinton is eagerly awaiting news of whether she is in pup to her fourth litter.

“She’s got us to where we are now really,” he said.

“Hopefully we find out next Tuesday whether she is in pup to Flying Riccardo.”

But, thoroughbreds are still on Clinton's radar and he has a couple of two-year-old's on his Tungamull property that close to entering work.

When there are young horses in the barn, there’s always good reason for hope.

But, Clinton, who once had on-course stables at Yeppoon, said he found training greyhounds just as rewarding.  

“I like the dogs,” he said.

“You don’t have the really early starts and everything you can do with the dogs, you can do by yourself.

“Once the lids open there is nobody to blame and everything that happens is out of your control.”

Clinton's duo will be taking on the might of the Ken Boody kennel, which boasts four of the eight competitors on Wednesday.

Boody prepared 229 winners at an incredible strike-rate of 29% in 2022, and looks on track for a bumper 2023 with 19 winners already at a strike-rate of 27%.

Boody will box Ring Me (box one), alongside Be The Best (box two), San Marco (box five) and Pitter Patter (box six).

Boody also trains first reserve Sorrento Breeze, while Juanita Thompson prepares second reserve Rosa’s Routine, who comes from the same litter as City Way and Rybolt.