Trio of Young Greyhound Stars Pique Fan Interest Across the Nation

Three young greyhounds currently competing across the country are attracting loads of attention, as their exploits are being closely watched by those that follow the "Sport of Queens." Derby Lane's KB's Sifter, Mile High's Bold Ferrall, and Corpus Christi's Gable Proteus are all rising stars, and greyhound fans from Florida to Colorado to Texas have them on their radar. The trio of males has everyone talking, as Sifter tries to live up to his advance billing, Bold Ferrall moves up the Mile High grading ladder, and someone tries to knock Proteus from the ranks of the never beaten.

KB's Sifter runs at the toughest of the three venues, venerable Derby Lane in St. Petersburg, Florida. The October 2005 son of the great Dodgem By Design sold for $46,000 at the National Greyhound Association's Spring Meet Racing Stock Auction, so he automatically will become a magnet for both praise and criticism as he learns the ropes at Derby Lane. Bought by the Charter Kennel, Sifter schooled in at Derby Lane with a second and then two victories, before he ran a pair of place efforts prior to winning his Maiden race on July 11th. A grade D win followed, but just by a nose, and when KB's Sifter faded from third to fifth in his initial C outing, one could hear the whispers and read the postings in greyhound chat rooms of how the dog couldn't possibly be worth what was paid for him. Sifter rebounded with a strong second and then won a Derby Lane C going away in 30.83. The clocking was one of two sub-thirty second efforts that performance, with only the extremely talented Kaias Sequoyah posting a more rapid race, at 30.53. It remains to be seen if KB's Sifter can deliver as he is expected to, but he certainly appears headed in the right direction at the present time, and will only improve as he gains valuable experience on the racing surface.

In the thin mountain air on the outskirts of Denver, Bold Ferrall is making his presence felt every time he draws into a race. The Mile High track features one of the longer sprint distances in the nation, a 566 yard course that tests a greyhound's endurance. After coming up short in his first schooling event, Bold Ferrall has been up to the task. Another Dodgem By Design prodigy, the sixty-six pound red boy went out and destroyed his next schooling bunch by eighteen lengths, and then won another by almost seven, preparing him for his official debut on July 13th. As a seventy cents to the dollar chalk, he blitzed his competition by thirteen in 31.83 seconds before running into trouble his next time out. In grade C he didn't break well and made the first turn in fifth before turning on the jets to close up for a third. On July 23rd, Bold Ferrall made the corner in third and won by eight, then showed that this was no fluke as he caught Bora Bora five days later to advance to A. Bold Ferrall now finds himself one grade away from the elite of the Colorado racing circuit, and it will be just a matter of time before the January 2006 youngster is mixing it up with Mile High's best.

Gable Proteus has only once seen a dog cross the line ahead of him at Corpus Christi on the Texas coast, and apparently it upset him so much that he vowed to not let it happen again. So far it hasn't, as the white and red, eighty-two pound offspring of Gable Dodge and Bratwurst N Beer has won twelve straight races since that late May loss. Three of those were schooling heats, and then the March 2005 super pup shredded his foes each and every time that it really counted, often running the fastest time of the day. Too old to compete against Maidens, Proteus won grade D by fourteen lengths, C by a dozen, his B race by eight, and his first A event by seven. His only close call came in his initial AA try, as Gable Proteus cleared the turn in second and won by one length. After that scare, he recorded victories by seven, three and a half, and a pair by almost ten, the overwhelming favorite each and every time out. Running for thirty dollars a point, it is probably just a matter of time before Proteus is sent elsewhere to seek greater glory for his owners, a day the rest of the dogs at Corpus Christi can't see dawn soon enough.