Courtesy of thedogs.com.au

10/01/11

Comeback chaser High Earner will be looking for his biggest win since his return to racing after a stint in the breeding barn, when he lines up in Monday night’s time-honoured Group Two Cranbourne Cup (520m).

During 2009 and the first half of 2010, the outstanding son of Collision and Double Guess was in the top echelon of greyhounds in the country, winning the Group One Perth Cup, as well as the Queensland and WA Derbies and was retired after making the Macro Meats Golden Easter Egg final.

After six months away from the race track, owners Dave and Christine Robartson gave High Earner a second crack at racing, winning two of his first three starts at Albion Park. But after a third and two unplaced runs, High Earner was sent south to the care of champion trainer Kel Greenough.

On the trial track, High Earner had reportedly broken a 10 year old record set by Hall Of Famer Brett Lee, but his win in the fastest time of the night in last Monday’s heat of the Cranbourne Cup was a welcome return to winning form for the Group One winner, after a first up performance where he finished down the track.

On Monday night from box two, High Earner should be sent out a clear cut favourite.

Hardest to beat looks to be the in-form Smoke Home, a winner of three of his last four starts, and Gold Heritage, who looks to be well boxed out wide and ran 30.39s, only 0.01s of a second slower than High Earner.

The knockout dog could be the former West Aussie, Bramley.

Owned by Dan Biddle and trained by Troy Iwanyk, Bramley is from the outstanding Bog Daddy Cool – Abbadale Gold litter that also contains Kalden Athena who performed so well in the recent Group One Laurels Classic series finishing a narrow second.
The box draw for the Group Two $30,000-to-the-winner Cranbourne Cup is: 1 Bramley, 2 High Earner, 3 Black Saharrah, 4 Full Noise, 5 Smoke Home, 6 Catch Up Sunday, 7 Finbar McCool, 8 Gold Heritage.

High Earner will start a deserved favourite, following his best of night heat time last week, but look to Smoke Home for some value as his early box manners may just bring him victory in a cracking race.