Pictured: Highly Potent in full flight. Photo credit: Jason Mckeown.
Talented youngster Highly Potent has raced her way into Thursday night’s Group 3 Launching Pad Final at Sandown Park, providing a group of first-time greyhound owners with the perfect introduction to greyhound ownership.
Trained by James Presutto, the daughter of Tommy Shelby and Potent is owned by the Burgin Racing Syndicate, which, among other people, comprises a group of first-time greyhound owners, including Jason Smith.
Smith, who has a strong football background with Richmond and Carlton, can’t believe their dog will be racing for $150,000 on Thursday night.
“It’s amazing! We got involved in ownership through a friend of a friend, Mark Burgin, who is right into racing and the syndicate manager. This is the first dog we’ve ever been involved with,” enthused Smith.
He and his retired dairy farmer father Eddie are in the ownership, along with a group of 10 boarding school mates who all grew up together and attended Assumption College in Kilmore.
“There’s Anson Brownless – Billy Brownless’s brother – who played footy for the Sydney Swans Reserves and under 19s. There’s a bloke (in the syndicate) who’s a sheep farmer with 56,000 acres. We’ve got a real estate agent from Echuca. We’ve got a bus owner. We’ve got boys in construction, another’s a plumber, and I work on the docks – I’m a wharfie.
“So, we come from all different backgrounds, but we’re not city people. We’re all country boys!”
Pictured: Anson Brownless, Jason Smith, Natalie Presutto, James Presutto and Highly Potent. Photo credit: Jason Mckeown.
Smith has previously been involved in the ownership of a number of elite thoroughbreds, including 2016 Group 2 Wakeful Stakes winner Tiamo Grace, 2014 Warrnambool Cup winner Akzar and 2020 All-Star Mile contender Heart of Puissance – but he says that Highly Potent provides the same type of thrill when she wins.
“It’s all about that winning feeling. But with dogs, you don’t pay training fees like you do with the horses, and they’re racing every week.
“I’m passionate about greyhound ownership now, and I believe that micro-shares, like they offer in thoroughbreds, is the way forward for the sport to get more people involved.”
Smith and his friends will be back at the track this Thursday night to cheer on Highly Potent once again – but win, lose or draw, they’re just excited to be in the final.
“Blue Storm looks hard to beat, but I think we could be in the top three!”