Lee Tindall is hoping her classy Tasmanian-trained speedster Cosmic Heir can make a triumphant return to her home state when she contests the heats of the Group 2 Bendigo Cup on Sunday.
Lee, who’s based at Balmattum, near Euroa, bred and races Cosmic Heir, a daughter of Cosmic Chief and Latina, which Lee also bred, with her brother John and mother Sue.
Cosmic Heir, which is trained in the Apple Isle by Pat Ryan, has made her presence felt in several visits to the mainland, running a close third to Victorian Aussie Infrared in the Group 2 Maitland Cup in March, and winning heat and final of a Vic Bred grade 5 series at Bendigo last month in preparation for the Cup.
“Since I was 15 or 16 I always wanted a greyhound and when I was 18 I started buying dogs off successful breeder Michael Ivers,” Lee explained.
“I didn’t have much luck to start with, before I was lucky enough to buy Nova Keroma. Nova Keroma had a litter to Surf Lorian, which included Nova Surf, which won the Warrnambool Cup, and Come Over Nova.
“Nova Keroma also had a litter to Bombastic Shiraz that included Latina, the mother of Cosmic Heir. Latina only had about 12 starts because she dropped a back muscle but she could really run and I was very excited about breeding with her.”
Lee’s confidence in Latina as a breeding proposition was well-placed, with her first litter to Cosmic Chief, a Group-winning son of the great Brett Lee, including Cosmic Heir, the winner of 20 of her 40 starts, and Group 1 Hobart Thousand finalists Chief Jetpilot (23 from 56) and Count Baroque.
“Chief Jetpilot won the Greyhound of the Year in Tasmania last year and he was also named Most Consistent Greyhound,” Lee said proudly.
“Chief Jetpilot and Count Baroque both won their heats of the Hobart Thousand and I think a bit of bad luck in the final cost them the quinella.
“Latina’s second litter to Surf Lorian are just about to go to trainers now and she’s also got a nine-month-old litter to Superman, which will be her last litter. I think two to three litters is enough. These days you need to be selective with your breeding and breed with the best girls you’ve got.”
Lee has adopted a very successful formula of racing her greyhounds in Tasmania, where they are trained by Ted Medhurst and Pat Ryan, which began with her multiple Group 1 finalist Lillycette, which produced a litter to the mighty Fernando Bale earlier in the year.
“Lillycette wasn’t setting the world on fire in Melbourne so Ted (Medhurst) took her on and we had a good lot of success and it started from there,” Lee said.
“Ted mentioned that there was another good trainer in Tasmania, Pat Ryan, who might take some dogs as well and now all our best ones go to Ted or Pat.
“When Pat brought Cosmic Heir over for the Vic Bred series at Bendigo she won the heat and final in very good time (23.56sec and 23.68sec) and Pat said that all going well he’ll be bringing her back for the Bendigo Cup, which will be very exciting.
WATCH: Cosmic Heir win the Vic Bred series final at Bendigo from box two.“We moved down from NSW about four years ago and it’s been a lot of hard work but the winners keep coming, so we must be doing something right and it makes it a bit easier to get up in the morning.
“There’s a few people I would like to thank. David Brasch, who does all our breeding match-ups, Michael Bell our vet, Ross Goeby our ear-brander, Grant Fullerton does our breaking-in and Neil Sargison takes our dogs to Tassie. I’d also like to thank Pat Ryan and Ted Medhurst and their families and the callers in Tasmania, Col McNiff and Shane Yates, who make the races so exciting for us to watch.”
