After enjoying a “once in a lifetime” run of success in 2022, Gary Peach will be striving to start the New Year in style, by claiming back-to-back victories in the $15,425 Warrnambool Summer Sizzle Final (390m) on Saturday night.
Cape Clear-based Peach, Victorian greyhound racing’s ‘strike rate king’, is eyeing the $10,000 winner’s purse with fastest qualifier Mr. Beets, impressive winner of six of his eight starts.
Peach won last year’s Summer Sizzle with Silver Brute victorious at his seventh start, with the brilliant speedster going on to assemble an imposing 27 from 46 record.
Silver Brute is one of the headline acts in Peach’s spectacular Aston Dee Bee x Weeping Lass litter, which also features Action Girl (28 from 41) and Struck Gold (17 from 39), which won the Vic Bred Maiden Final during Warrnambool’s 2022 Seaside Carnival.
The Weeping Lass dam-line could well produce consecutive Summer Sizzle winners for Peach in the shape of highly promising Mr. Beets.
Mr. Beets is a November ’20 son of Bernardo and Mother Hannah, a Barcia Bale x Weeping Lass litter sister to 2019 G2 Bendigo Cup winner Crimson Vixen.
“He’s showing a lot of promise,” said Peach.
“Silver Brute went on to win a heap of races, including the Pink Diamond (Listed Champion Short Course). But Mr. Beets is just as quick as Silver Brute and he’s a stronger dog, so he’ll get more ground.
“I bred the mother, Mother Hannah, and she could run – she was probably as quick as Crimson Vixen – but she had a few problems.
WATCH: “Mr. Beets the favourite bolted in!” Exciting youngster MR. BEETS (B2) set the pace in the heats of Warrnambool’s Summer Sizzle (390m) last Friday, clocking a flying 21.79sec.
“This is her first litter and they’re flying! One (Willow Road) was the quickest qualifier from the Healesville Vic Breeders heats last Sunday and another one (Chinchilla Mist) won a final at Warrnambool last week.
“Mother Hannah has also had a litter to Houdini Boy, and she’s just been implanted with Black Shiraz, apparently it was the last straw in Australia.”
Mr. Beets set Warrnambool alight in last Friday’s Summer Sizzle heats, starting $1.60 in the last of three runoffs and romping home by 4.91 lengths in a near-record 21.79sec, less than 3 lengths outside Aussie Infrared’s course benchmark.
The other two heat winners were Westar Commander, trained by Jeff Britton, and Nehalem, prepared by John Paraskevas, which both ran 21.95sec.
Six of Mr. Beets’ eight career assignments have come at Warrnambool, where he’s won three from four over 390m and scored once over 450m, while he’s also won at Geelong and Horsham.
Mr. Beets will exit box 4 in the Summer Sizzle Final – race 8 at 8.22pm on Saturday’s stellar Seaside Festival finale – with form expert The Watchdog rating him $3.60 favourite.
“He just keeps surprising me each week!” Peach said.
“The one issue has been that he tends to crash left, but last week was the straightest he’s gone, so hopefully he’s learning from experience.
“I’d rather box four, than five, six or seven! As long as he leads again, he’ll be hard to beat.
“I’m not sure how much faster he can go. He’s getting fitter every start and with natural improvement and maturity the next six or 12 months should be exciting if he stays sound.”
Meanwhile, kennel stars Action Girl and Silver Brute are still going strong.
“Action Girl knocked off Typhoon Sammy at Warragul on Sunday, and Silver Brute had won three in a row before he just got beaten at Horsham on Tuesday,” Peach said.
Pawnote: Mr. Beets is named after Tony Beets, a famous prospector in the Klondike region in Canada, featured in TV reality series ‘Gold Rush’. He’s well-named, as Gary Peach has indeed hit pay dirt with the progeny of Weeping Lass.
