Three littermates were amongst the 32 greyhounds who jumped from the boxes at the Grafton Greyhound Racing Club during the running of the last regional heats of the Thunderbolt series on June 9 with brothers Hit The Switch and Cash On Delivery scoring tenacious wins over 350m in Heat 1 and Heat 2 respectively to qualify for the semi-finals this weekend.

While Hit The Switch started as one of the outsiders in his heat, Cash On Delivery received plenty of support from punters as he headed onto the track with the South Australian star running home in 19.80 seconds to record his thirteenth win in succession.

Speaking with the Clarence Valley Independent, John Thomas, representing the winning trainer Cameron Forshaw, said the talented son of Zambora Brockie out of Shilo had the credentials to win Heat 2.

“He’s such a brilliant dog,” he explained.

“I’m so happy for the connections.

“It’s (Thunderbolt) a major race, and to have a greyhound in the semi-finals, they’re going to be very happy.

“This is a marvel of a dog.

“It’d be nice if he draws box 1 or box 8 (in the semi-finals) because he is so brilliant early, but he showed today that jumping from box 5 he can still go pretty good and his sectionals were really fast.

“Hopefully, with a bit of luck, he can repeat that effort next time.”

While Hit The Switch and Cash On Delivery progressed to the semi-finals, their littermate Cobblepot was narrowly defeated by the $3.50 favourite Bumpy Gold in Heat 3.

“It was still a great effort,” said Brent Kline who bred the litter.

“To see Hit The Switch and Cash On Delivery get through, and for Cobblepot to run second, I’m really proud of them.”

After gaining a start in Heat 4, the final heat of the night following the scratching of two of his competitors, Dino Way secured his place in the semi-finals with a dominant performance, stopping the clock at 19.91 seconds and defeating the well-fancied Simply Express by more than a length on the line.

Hit The Switch, Cash On Delivery, Bumpy Gold, and Dino Way will head to the boxes for the Thunderbolt semi-finals to be hosted by the Grafton Greyhound Racing Club on June 16 where they will be joined by the winners of other regional Thunderbolt heats.

The final fields for the Thunderbolt semi-finals were not available at the time of publication.  

This article appeared in the  Clarence Valley Independent, 12 June 2024.