Flying Linden Finally Tastes Defeat at the Lodge at Belmont in New Hampshire

Flying Linden, who was once thought to be unbeatable at the Lodge at Belmont dog track near Lake Winnipesauke New Hampshire, has suddenly lost not once, but twice. Linden took a ten race winning streak into his race on July 14th, only to see it snapped when he encountered trouble from the eight box and finished fourth by a couple of lengths. Then he ran third in his next outing at the Lodge when once again he tried to get to the rail early and found dogs in his way. In both races, the winner was Winta Storm of the Quick Silver Kennel, a greyhound that broke her Maiden at Belmont and has been improving each and every time to post.

There was nobody coming within hailing distance of Flying Linden in the brindle male's first nine races at the Lodge at Belmont. Linden had been a Raynham performer for the majority of his career before shipping north to the New Hampshire oval, where he became a star virtually overnight. Linden found the competition at Belmont to be far more to his liking, and he proceeded to dominate every field he was drawn into. But perhaps things were too easy for the three year old, as when he got into a tight spot that required some doing to get out of he was unable to do so.

In his first setback, Linden came from an eight hole, the same box that he trounced the Inaugural field from in his first Lodge at Belmont adventure back in May. When he broke, rather than rush down cleanly, Linden attempted to get over to the inside portion of the track a bit too soon and ran into some other racers. This traffic jam allowed Winta Storm and JBL's Hiphop to gain the upper hand, and they ran first and second, overtaking the early leader in the tilt, Duce Is Loose, while all Linden could do is wave bye-bye to his streak. The next start was similar, as Linden burst from the six and showed that he still hadn't learned his lesson; he did well to recover enough from the bumping and thumping to make it up for third, with Winta Storm clinging to her narrow lead over Our Nightmare as the dogs crossed the finish line.

There are some other greyhounds worth giving some ink to at the Lodge at Belmont as it heads into its final month of the current meet. Borna Prioncess, a black female that fought her way out of the state of Wisconsin in the truest sense of the word, has been a good girl in New Hampshire and has finally figured out the 660 yard routes. After some closing efforts that failed to net a victory, Princess has won two 3/8ths of a mile races in a row, both from behind, though the first one was from much farther off the pace than the second. On July 18th, a greyhound named Callie Grant caught the aforementioned Duce Is Loose in a Grade A event and paid $95 for her win to the bettor clever, or lucky, enough to figure the race out beforehand.

On the 21st of July, the veteran sprinter Mana Cheeto won the first race at 11-1 odds. Approaching five years old, this brindle warrior has run at a number of tracks, including Plainfield and Hinsdale. She was a little slow adjusting to the Lodge at Belmont, but now that she is back in the upper grades it would be foolhardy to ignore her. With as much heart as any racer could possibly muster each and every time out, Mana Cheeto labors in the obscurity of a lower level greyhound track such as the seasonal Lodge, but that should not take away from the grit and guts she displays when the lure swings by and that starting box opens one more time.