The Top Dogs at Wichita Greyhound Park

Wichita Greyhound Park on the outskirts of Wichita, Kansas, has a half dozen racers that are currently the class of the facility. One had an exceptional beginning to her career, another dominates the routes and had the third most wins in the entire nation in 2006, and the rest are accomplished sprinters. Wichita Greyhound Park runs a total of six performances per week, and is in the process of getting slot machines, just needing voter approval, which is expected to be a mere formality.

That will mean that the dogs will be running for higher purses, as the kennels will certainly get a piece of the slot pie. That's good news for the owners of Chevita, who so far in 2007 has won twenty-one of his twenty-six starts. The red male, a November 2004 son of Kiowa Sweet Trey, has been a star since breaking his Wichita Maiden last year. A winner of twelve consecutive races earlier this spring, Chevita flies to the front in the 1,650 foot sprints and then extends the lead, as few at Wichita are capable of hanging with this 76 pound runner. In a recent encounter with fifteen race winner I'm Feelingmyoats, Chevita forged an early lead and won handily for his twenty-sixth triumph, as he leads all Wichita dogs in firsts this season. Oats is no slouch himself, and is in fact Chevita's full brother, with a similar running style that has been quite successful at the Kansas track.

San Tan Poo Nan has been on a tear at Wichita Greyhound Park as of late, with a six race winning streak snapped only last week. Nan then began what could become a new skein when the 65 pound red brindle bitch caught Greys Blak Moon and won going away in 30.86 seconds for her sixteenth victory of 2007. Out of SC's Mask Rider, San Tan Poo Nan broke in at Wichita in the winter of 2006, winning eleven races last year before really taking off in 2007. Speaking of really coming out of the gate like gangbusters, E's Sweet Fay broke her Wichita Maiden on her fourth attempt and then amazingly did not lose for another eight races. Fay shot up the Wichita grading ladder like a Kansas sunflower on the prairie, storming through the lower grades and then winning four Grade A events in a row before finally cooling down. Chevita became a victim on July 8th when he could not catch the speedy Sweet Fay, who won her tenth of the year on the 25th before running a solid second in her next outing, giving her a record of ten for sixteen. Fay is a July 2005 Sweet Trey offspring that will only get better and better, which could spell trouble for the rest of the Wichita long tails.

Another Kiowa Sweet Trey prodigy is the undisputed king of the Wichita routes, this after dominating the place in 2006 to the tune of forty-five wins over the sprints, good for third best in the United States. Dauntless is an eighty-one pound machine who no greyhound at Wichita can handle on a clean run. The winner of fourteen of eighteen this year, he had won nine of ten 3/8ths of a mile heats until being upset on July 29th, a race in which he ran third from far back. Dauntless has won sixty-six times over the span of almost ninety races, and the three and a half year old brindle male has an outside shot at the magical one hundred victory mark if he stays on course over the next year or so.

Casual Country was considered good enough as a youngster to compete in the November puppy stakes, and although he did not win, the red male made the finals. After that he justified his owner's faith by moving steadily up the ranks at Wichita until he landed in A, and the red male's early foot has made him a fixture there since this past February. Fourteen top level wins later, Casual Country is considered to be one of Wichita Greyhound Park's top sprinters, as he has won half of his thirty-two 2007 races and is still just two years old. Another outstanding Wichita runner is Flying Torre, who possesses a great closing kick. Torre is also just two and the red female out of Flying Hydrogen may need to go over to the longer routes for her to go get the most out of her abilities, as she is always flying home on the 5/16ths of a mile races down the stretch.