St. Petersburg, Florida: A Tribute to Derby Lane's Top Cat Orson

When the day comes that Derby Lane announces the retirement of Top Cat Orson, the event is sure to draw some emotion from even the most unsentimental of gamblers. Top Cat Orson has been a fixture on the Derby Lane-Tampa Greyhound Park circuit for over two and a half years now, a performer who has given his best each and every time to post. Although not a big winner down on the west Florida coast, Orson has had his moments, and out of one hundred and thirty-two career outings at both tracks combined, he has run fourth or better almost seventy percent of the time. The people that wager on this pair of tracks has, at some point, had to have won or lost a bet over the last thirty-one months because of Top Cat Orson's exploits.

Top Cat Orson is a seventy-three pound brindle male out of Oshkosh Slammer and KB's Vortex. Whelped in June of 2003, Orson schooled in at Derby Lane in mid-December of 2004, rather impressively, winning two of three heats. His first race came on December 29th of that year, a fourth place finish the result, but he did not win his Maiden until a month later. Two more wins came in Orson's next three Derby Lane outings, and it looked as if he was headed right up the grading ladder. However, he wasn't quite able to get over the hump in Grade B, despite hitting the board most of the time. Top Cat Orson didn't make it to Grade A until September of 2005, when he romped to an almost ten length decision on the 12th, and once there, Orson began to do some damage.

Although he didn't win top grade races at Derby Lane often, Orson was always on the pay sheet. He was developing into a closer type after losing some leads earlier in his career. Orson became such a threat in the stretch in sprints that he was even tried over the longer 660 yard route, but the added distance did not sit well with him. Although he went box to wire in his second time on the Derby Lane backside, Top Cat Orson couldn't quite handle running a 3/8ths of a mile, and after a couple of experiments, he became strictly a sprinter.

Orson won a couple of Grade A contests late in 2005, and then became the type of greyhound that would drop down to B, win in short order, and then return to the higher level where he would run hard but not win very often. There were times when he did surprise, such as on May 1st of 2006 when he rallied from fourth to win an A, but he was never the kind of dog that would run off long winning streaks or go off as the overwhelming favorite. Orson was commonly sent off at odds around eight or nine to one against Derby Lane's best, and by the time he went to Tampa in the summer of 2006, he was back in Grade B.

At Tampa, Top Cat Orson won only once, a Grade C tilt in November, the first time he had dropped that low since May of 2005, a span of eighteen months. Orson was happy to return to Derby Lane, where he has been ever since, winning both of his schoolings, his B race, and then doing some of the best work of his career. He won three Grade A events in a row, starting the run with a wire-to-wire job on February 16th. .He then came from off the pace twice to complete his hat trick, the longest streak of his career. Top Cat was entered in the Sprint Championship, but a third round collision insured that he would not make the final. He slipped back into his familiar pattern, winning B and trying hard in A.

Lately Orson has been feeling his oats, as the now four year old racer has recorded A wins in two of his last three starts. These victories give him twenty-three lifetime, as his time on the oval winds down. Derby Lane is not the kind of dog track where the greyhounds that are up in years find tons of success, and it would seem logical that Top Cat Orson will soon find that out. But he will take with him the respect of all who ever saw him run, a dog not blessed with the greatest talent but with a huge heart. It was never more on display than during a November evening back in 2005, when Top Cat Orson was running well enough to be included in a Night of Stars race. The stakes event included the great Joe Hearns, Kaias Hogan, and Whistler's Miss, but it was Orson who came from fifth to shock the field in the biggest triumph of his career. Fittingly, that night, he went off at odds of eight to one.