Pickard hopes Daniel can sparkle in Easter Sprint Final

By Wayne Heming

Townsville hobby-trainer Carol Pickard believes her highly-consistent Easter Sprint Trophy finalist, Daniel Sparkles, is boxed to give his rivals something to chase over the 380 metres at Townsville on Tuesday night.

Pickard, who has an extensive background in greyhounds through her father, Bill, and husband, Greg, says the best of Daniel Sparkles (Aston Rupee – Fugacious litter) is still to come.

“Provided he jumps and can get across and lead, he will be hard to beat,” Pickard said.

“But I’d say he would have to lead.”

Daniel Sparkles has not had a lot of racing, but has picked up cheques in 14 of his 17 career starts, including six wins, three of them over Townsville’s short course.

He also likes the eight box, having won the only two times he has worn the pink rug.

“He is a very honest dog and a very nice dog too, with plenty of potential,” said Pickard.

“He keeps on improving, and there is still plenty of racing left in him.

“He is a pretty big dog, so he may be suited to coming across the field.”

Pickard said the family property at Deeragun, on the western outskirts of Townsville, escaped any serious damage from the record recent flood rains.

“We got a lot of rain, and some water in the kennels, but we didn’t get flooded,” she said.

“The biggest problem was getting out of our property because the roads were flooded.

“We’ve got a little straight track we can run them up, so we were better off than some of the other trainers that copped it a lot worse than us.”

Pickard has been around greyhounds for much of her life, the last eight years or so in Townsville, where she and her husband moved to be closer to their children and grandchildren.

“My Dad and my husband had dogs at Cessnock, and the family raced dogs at Tamworth, Singleton and Newcastle for 30 years,” she said.

“We were up in Darwin for a few years, but we decided to move to Townsville to be closer to the family and train our own dogs.

“We’ve got about 12 dogs, which is a nice kennel size because between the both of us, we can get the dogs one-on-one.”

Pickard will have to knock off the big guns to take out the final with leading trainers Bobbie Jean Chaffey having four representatives -  Soloman Cain (box 1), Dulciphobia (box 2), Grinch (box 5) and Billy Buttons (box 6) - and Hayley Wooler two runners - Judi Starline (box 3) and Cuban Eight (box 4).

She has four runners on the program - Moonlit Lake (box 8) race 5, Daniel Sparkles, Curry Young Boy, a reserve for the Easter Sprint Trophy final and General Shylock (box 4) in race 12.

Pickard threw out a sneaky tip for Moonlit Lake as a possible surprise packet at odds.

The other feature race on the card is the Anzac Day Trophy (498m) with a fairly open field of runners.