Last night topped off what’s been a memorable week for trainer Andy Stewart as Slick Ice won the GRV Vic Bred final at Sandown Park.
Slick Ice begun well out of box six and gained clear room early to settle 2nd down the back straight. Despite a late charge from Mepunga Rosie, Slick Ice hung on to win by a head in 29.50.
“He’s come back after two shoulder injuries – he has always shown great ability but still has a lot to learn,” said Stewart.
The win was his 6th from just 11 starts and put the spotlight again on Stewart, after Slick Ice’s litter brother Midwinter won last Saturday night’s group 1 Silver Chief at The Meadows.
“It’s all a bit of a whirlwind at the moment, it’s not something you expect when you’re a hobby trainer with just a few dogs but it’s taken a long time to get where we are now – it’s very enjoyable.
“I see all the people who get up and make a speech after a big race win and think to myself ‘one day I might be there’, and when I finally got there I didn’t know what to say,” laughed Stewart.
Prior to the last seven days Stewart has had limited success over his 18 year training career, however with a couple of talented greyhounds in his kennel he’s hopeful his luck will continue.
“We haven’t had a great deal of success over the years, we’ve had provincial wins and the odd city win – Slick Ice and Midwinter’s mother, Tania Two Shoes, won quite a few in town.”
The love and appreciation the Stewart family have for their greyhounds’ is evident, every one bred or owned by the family remain at the house after their racing career.
“We keep all of our retired greyhounds at home – unfortunately due to illness we had to put down Pearlee Surprise a few months ago though she’s buried in our backyard, she wasn’t going nowhere but this place.
“We had offers of $80k for Barnstormer a few years ago but I refused to sell him, the money is irrelevant – we love them to death.”
Stewart has a strong passion for cake decorating and recently retired after 25 years as a teacher at William Angliss, though has linked his interest with the naming of his greyhounds.
“One of my other dogs Satin Ice is named after an icing I use for decorating – we tried about 15 names for this one and eventually we settled on Slick Ice.
“I competed in cake decorating competitions at the Royal Melbourne Show for years and had a lot of success.”
Stewart’s introduction to greyhound racing was through a colleague who was a trainer at the time, sold a greyhound to Stewart’s wife, Judy, for her to give to Andy as a gift.
“Judy bought me a greyhound by surprise, who we named Judy’s Surprise. Unfortunately due to injury she only had one race start but we bred with her and many of her pups were very successful.”
Click here for all of last night’s results
