Postman Pat heads to Sandown Park

The high-flying Kiwi greyhound Postman Pat will have vocal “home town” support when he makes his likely Sandown Park race debut on Sunday afternoon.

His former Canterbury trainer Tony Hart, along with Dylan Voyce and Cameron Thomassen, will be on-course when the son of Hooked On Scotch and Birdie Tee contests his 515m event.

Sunday will be Postman Pat’s fifth Victorian race since he entered the kennels of leading conditioner Jason Thompson. He has created a huge impression via his four powerful race victories to date, posting meeting best times in all four of his race assignments for his owner and breeder Jose Arthur.

The trio flew to Melbourne on Wednesday morning, keenly anticipating catching up with their former kennel star.

“Jason informed us that Postman Pat trialled stylishly at Sandown [on Tuesday]. He is rapt with his trial, running 29.24, with 5.02 and 18.61 splits,” advised Hart about the exceptional trial. “Jason says that Pat has done everything 100 per cent right so far.

“At this stage, Jason plans to send him north to Brisbane once he’s safely through Sunday. He intends to trial him at Albion Park on 18 June, then race him there 22 June.”

The 520m heats for the $1 million Brisbane Cup are scheduled to be contested June 29, with the rich final being set down for July 7.

While the Brisbane Cup is the pinnacle event, the high-profile Brisbane Winter Carnival incorporates seven race meetings, featuring 18 Group and Listed races, offering $3.3m in feature stake-money.

The Canterbury “tourists” will attend this Saturday evening’s race meeting at The Meadows, however they have a couple of key appointments prior to that.

“We will visit Darren Puleio [Hooked On Scotch’s studmaster] on Saturday morning, then Darren will take us to Jason’s kennels,” said Hart. “Then on Sunday morning, we will visit Anthony Azzopardi’s kennels.”

Azzopardi is now mentoring another former Hart-trained chasing star Big Daddy, who had an issue in the traps when he made his recent Australian race debut where he ran a sound Sandown Park 515m third.

“Anthony has recently trialled Big Daddy at Ballarat. He says he will bring Big Daddy along quietly,” said Hart.

Owing to Sunday’s visiting and racing plans, Hart says that his Dunsandel kennel foreman Dylan Voyce is likely to miss his planned attendance at the Melbourne Storm vs Cronulla Sharks NRL match on Sunday.

“I haven’t told that to Dylan yet,” chuckled Hart.

It would have been an interesting conversation at Christchurch Airport early Wednesday morning as Voyce is a very dedicated Storm supporter.