Aston Trio Dominate Casino Cup Heats

RAY Borda will have three “Aston” finalists in next Friday night's Group 3 Casino Cup (484m) and Martins Creek trainer Geoff Grimwood is confident he will go close to winning it with Aston Zodiac.

Grimwood won with Aston Zodiac (Fernando Bale-Alotta Luck) in a best of the heats 27.42, while Jason Mackay landed Aston Lee “for the boss” in 27.49, and the Mark Davidson-trained Aston Tatum ran 27.54 to win its heat.

The other two Cup heats went to locals Kooringa Lucy in 27.52 and Phantom Bonnie in 27.47.

Grimwood is excited about his Cup chances.

“But, it will not be an easy race to win because on times there is no more than two lengths between the whole field,” he said. “

Obviously next Tuesday's box draw will have a huge bearing on the result.

Aston Zodiac has been a prolific winner for the Grimwood kennel her victory at Casino her 14th in a career of 37 starts.

“She came out of the Lismore Cup heats with a bit of an injury which we worked on to get right,” said Geoff.

“Then we spent two weeks taking her to Casino for trials on the track.

“In each of those trials she has sharpened her first section and the heat winning time was the best she has run for us there.”

Grimwood first got involved with Ray Borda through Jason Mackay.

“Jason helped us get a couple of dogs from Ray a while ago and one of those was Aston Ebert who made the final of the Lismore, Casino and Gosford Cups,” he said.

“Ray continues to send us a couple of dogs for our kennels.”

He said Aston Zodiac took a little while to perfect her box manners when first starting to race.

“But, she's become foolproof lately,” said Geoff. 

He pointed to the fact Phantom Bonnie had reeled off the fastest first two sections of the Cup heats on Friday and depending on where she draws in the final she will be hard to beat.

“Zodiac's chances all depend on what is boxed immediately around her and what they do out of the boxes,” he said.

Grimwood has been training for the past 25 years.

He recently moved to acreage at Martin's Point to establish a greyhound complex.

“We've got our own breeding program happening and with a couple of Ray Borda's dogs joining the kennel, it is looking very bright.”