J's Daytona and Magic Penny Ante: A Pair of Late Speed Greyhound Stars

There are two red hot greyhounds running right now at two different venues, each working on winning streaks. J's Daytona runs at, of all places, Daytona Beach Kennel Club on the Florida coast, while Magic Penny Ante is at one of the highest paying tracks in the nation, Tri-State Greyhound Park in West Virginia. Both have lots of speed late in the race when everything is on the line, both were whelped in 2005, and both have left little doubt lately to the outcome of their races.

Magic Penny Ante is an August 2005 black female out of Ben Awhile and Snookered. At 62 pounds, she is a sleek and exciting racing machine, having won eight consecutive tilts, made all the more difficult by the fact that in the very middle of this run she switched distances. Penny Ante, owned by the Haber Kennels, broke in at Tri-State earlier in the year and in her seventeen times to post there, she has emerged the winner on thirteen separate occasions. Penny Ante has blazing speed, as evidenced by her times in the 550 yard sprints. She has been successful by staying close enough to the leaders early that she is able to run them down late, most of the time in the backstretch, and put them away coming down the stretch.

On July 16th, Magic Penny Ante ran a 29.92 for the 1,650 foot 5/16ths of a mile course, beating the highly regarded Kay V North East by two lengths. This was her third straight Grade AA triumph, and she followed that up with three more in handy fashion. Then it was decided by her handlers that she should be tried over the 677 yard route distance, a move that looked really smart when she won her initial start over that yardage by three lengths in 38.13 seconds. Penny Ante proved that was no fluke with a similar effort in her next try, and now it appears that she will be going to Twin River in Lincoln, Rhode Island with her eye on the $100,000 Joseph M. Lindsey Memorial American Derby, run over 680 yards. This will be no easy task, as the competition will be steep and she will be on unfamiliar turf, but her class may carry her quite a ways when all is said and done at Twin River.

J's Daytona lacks the early foot that Penny Ante can display but the 71 pound blue male does feature a potent late closing kick that has propelled him to five straight sprint victories. The two year old son of San Tan Whammo broke his Daytona Beach Kennel Club Maiden last September 25th on his fifth attempt, and then won grades D and C from behind before coming off the active list with an injury until late winter. J's Daytona resumed his career in March, going to the upper Daytona Beach echelons on the 28th with a stretch run that gave him a one length win. After failing to rally from way back in a trio of Grade A outings, he dropped down to B, but from the one box posted a convincing eight length rout of his peers to find himself right back in A.

This time things were different, as J's Daytona came from seventh to run second in A and then won his next time out. However, the injury bug bit again, costing him a couple of month's time. Back on the track by the time the end of June rolled around, he has been fantastic, winning eight times. During his current streak of five in a row, J's Daytona has been mired in sixth place twice, only to turn on the afterburners and win going away, by four lengths both times. Another victory was from fifth, while he made the first turn considerably closer in the other pair. J's Daytona went off at four dimes to the dollar in his last start, and did not disappoint, running the 550 yards in 30.65 seconds. A shift to the longer 3/8ths of a mile would seem to make sense for him as well, as he should have no problem handling the extra real estate.