Houston, Texas: Cry Centavos Wins the Summer Slugfest at Gulf Greyhound Park

The 2007 Summer Slugfest Championship, contested over the 5/16ths of a mile distance at Gulf Greyhound Park outside of Houston, Texas, was such an evenly matched affair that the favorite was 7-2 and the longest shot on the board was only 7-1. In races like that, post position almost always plays a vital role, and in this one it was the red blanket that became all important. The greyhound wearing that piece of clothing was Cry Centavos, who came into the Summer Slugfest with only twelve career starts under her belt, but left with a stakes crown after going box to wire from the one hole.

The Summer Slugfest field was comprised of the first four dogs over the finish line in two elimination heats held eight days earlier, and conspicuous by his absence was SP's Rags, who had been in the midst of the last couple of sprint titles at the Lone Star track. However, Rags got all but knocked down in the qualifying as a huge favorite, while San Tan Sweetbay and DLT White Knight led the charge into the finals, winning their races. As usual, Bob's Wal closed big, but all he could manage was a fourth place venture in the qualifying tilts, barely enough to get him into the Slugfest after he found trouble at the corner. Cry Centavos meanwhile ran a solid third from a tough spot, the six box, this just one race after she recorded her first AA win at Gulf Greyhound Park.

The specter of her thirteenth start, with the superstition surrounding that number, was obviously not in the minds of the Gulf Greyhound bettors, as they established the daughter of Gulfstream and Cry Amy as a co-favorite with Bob's Wal, the recent winner of the July 4th Firecracker Stakes in which he came from an astounding distance back to win. Both were sent off at 7-2 odds, one based on her post position and the other on his past history of coming up big when all the marbles are on the line. The rest of the field was 5-1, 6-1, or 7-1, as it was simply too difficult to handicap the race and throw anybody out. Gable California in the two was the oldest competitor in the race, but was showing an eleven length romp a few races back. Dobbs Fairy in the three looked well placed in her inside hole, with Sweetbay in the four showing lines indicating that he had to be considered for the board, if not for the victory. Wal was in the five, not that it mattered where he broke from, since he almost always breaks last. Shadows Bythebay had enough early speed to be a threat from the six, and DLT White Knight, one of four dogs in the race sired by Gable Dodge, had just beaten half of this group in the semifinals. Finally, U Too Wood in the eight figured to have a great chance of making it to the turn in the top three, as he had done in six of the last seven times out.

The break saw Cry Centavos come out a tad in front of the rest of the greyhounds; this combined with the fact that Gable California broke behind everyone gave the sixty-four pound red speedster tons of room on the rush to the corner. Centavos took full advantage of the open real estate to outrun Dobbs Fairy, Shadowsbythebay, and U Too Wood into the first bend, and she came out of the turn with the lead over Wood by two lengths. Meanwhile, the four dog, San Tan Sweetbay, in an attempt to drive through the turn on the rail, collided slightly with Dobbs Fairy, starting a chain reaction that eventually claimed Bob's Wal as a victim, knocking him sideways and making it such that even his great late speed could not save him on this occasion. Cry Centavos continued down the Gulf Greyhound Park racing surface with the clean front, with U Too Wood in pursuit.

It would be a futile chase that Wood could not win, but he did manage to trim the margin to a length at the wire. Gable California made a nice recovery from his molasses-like exit from the starting box to nip Dobbs Fairy at the wire for third. Centavos toured the track in the night's fastest clocking, a 30.48 second effort. The quiniela of 1-8 paid off to the tune of $25, the triple was worth over $400, with the superfecta of 1-8-2-3 paying $1,030. Cry Centavos is co-owned by Jim and Shirley Younts, is trained by Cam Hawkins, and plies her trade for the LQK Kennel, Inc. She now looks forward to the upcoming Stubbs Harley Sprint Championship, which begins elimination rounds on August 16th.