Revenge and the End of a Streak at Southland Greyhound Park

As so often occurs in dog racing, one fine greyhound got another shot at its nemesis right after a big loss in a stakes final, with Southland Greyhound Park in West Memphis, Arkansas the venue for this rematch. As a matter of fact, the dogs that ran one-two-three in the $50,000 Southland Sprint Derby Championship on August 4th all came back to meet six days later, with a different result. Soprano Drive, who lost the Derby crown because of his wide-running style, recovered from a terrible start to outrun Derby champ HDM Juana and notch a measure of revenge on Saturday night, August 10th, with the show dog from the title tilt, Greys Real Deal, making a futile late bid and running fifth.

Soprano Drive's start in this race was abysmal, and few in the crowd of almost a thousand Southland patrons would have bet a single dollar on him if they could have had a vision of what his first few yards out of the box would look like. Breaking from the four box, Drive found himself in a greyhound sandwich formed by the two and five, but somehow drove through the traffic to take up the chase of the leader, Macs Amillion. Meanwhile, Juana in the one broke okay but was cleanly outrushed to the corner by Amillion, and she found herself in third as the race played out. Greys Real Deal, who had been nearly unbeatable a few weeks back, got clobbered at the turn and despite having indescribable late speed, would not contend in this one.

In the Southland Sprint Derby, Soprano Drive looked to have the race in hand until he drifted wide coming home, opening the door for a late inside move by Juana which beat him by a half length. In the rematch though his wide running actually was a benefit, as he was able to make his way past Macs Amillion with ease on the outside part of the oval while Juan was a bit hesitant in trying to decide where to pass. Once the greyhounds straightened out and flew to the finish, it was obvious that Soprano Drive was not being run down, as Juana made a fine bid but the outcome was never in doubt. The Southland bettors were confident that Juana was going to give them an encore performance, making her the seventy cents to the bucks chalk, thus allowing Soprano Drive to go off at 5-1 odds. The quiniela of 1-4 actually paid less than what Drive returned to win, as it was a 3-1 price when the betting windows closed.

In other racing action at Southland, My Sugar Drive saw her eight race winning streak over the 660 yards go down the tubes when she ran as flat a race as she has in some time. There were no excuses for the 65 pound brindle daughter of Cayman Went, as she had a clean run and was simply beaten, finishing fifth as the 1-1 favorite. Lazyk Treyk Cabo won the event, as the more than capable router led from start to end from the one box. Another fine Southland Greyhound Park route runner, the wily veteran Divulge, won the thirtieth race of her West Memphis career on the 17th, catching one dog and holding off another over the 703 yard Southland marathon course. Divulge is as versatile as they come, competing in all three distances that Southland runs, but she is especially tough in the longer marathon. The fans recognized this and made her an eight dimes to a dollar pick, but Kiowa Capricorn almost pulled off the upset, coming from fifth to wind up a head short as both dogs ran down Kareem in the stretch.

The day before, the 16th, Greys Real Deal's handlers finally sent him over the 3/8ths, a distance he seems to be well suited for. The result was a second place finish, as the eighty pound monster came flying from sixth to lose to Bart's Jerseygirl by four lengths. With Real Deal now in the distance mix, Southland has as good a group of top grade routers as can be found at any greyhound facility in the nation, a bunch that will be even more impressive if the pup, LB Stroker, goes onto the backside in the near future. Such a move may be in the works, as the huge closing youngster fell in his last start over the 583 yards and his handlers may want to avoid such pitfalls by making him a route runner, where first turn traffic is not so bad.