Pennsylvania Is on the up


Trainer Andrew Paraskevas never thought that after Pennsylvania Is’s tier 3 win at Ballarat, he would claim his first ever city win less than two weeks later at Sandown Park.

Trained, bred and owned by Paraskevas, Pennsylvania Is began well out of box 1 to settle third first time past the post, before railing under Diva’s Shadow to win in a thriller by the barest of margins.

“I didn’t think she’d won,” said Paraskevas.

18-12-2014 R9V2

“My Dad and I were watching the race upstairs. It looked like she was coming up on the inside of Diva’s Shadow who was on her outside, and watching from behind it looked like it kicked again.”

“Dad said I think we got rolled,  just as he said that I looked up and I saw she put her head down on the line and said she got it! she got it! But dad was still adamant she got beaten.”

After seeing the number 1 semaphored, he and his dad, John, were over the moon.

“Dad was very excited. When they win I get excited because it’s not so much that it’s new to me, it’s just a good feeling to have a winner anywhere, let alone a city winner.”

The daughter of Portland Rain has previously raced at Sandown Park, however has only recently risen to the 595m distance.

“Two starts back she won a tier 3 race at Ballarat, it’s only been 10 days since that run and that was her first go at the middle distance. Up until then I wasn’t really sure on how she would handle it.”

The Cranbourne South based trainer regularly trials his chasers, however on this occasion gave Pennsylvania Is the challenge of competing in a full field at her first visit to the track.

“Rather than trialling on her own where I know she goes well, I put her in a field over 545m at Ballarat, and she equipped herself quite well winning by 10 lengths.

“She pulled up well so we nominated her for Sandown on Sunday, which was more of a spur of the moment thing. She won there so we decided to have a crack at the Thursday.”

Although Paraskevas has only recently taken up training greyhounds, it had always been something he wanted to do.

“Dad has had an interest in dogs since he was 18 or 20 years old, and he’s owned some pretty handy ones back in the 80s. I used to see all the winning photos on the wall and thought I’d like to have a crack at it one day, so I got a giveaway off the internet though at the time I wasn’t old enough to get trainers license. Dad was the one that took her everywhere.”