When Topper Teretto flew past the finishing post in last Thursday’s Group 3 Dapto Puppy Classic final, Frances Harris had no idea if her classy sprinter had won or not.
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The Bargo-based owner-breeder was on-track for the $75,000-to-the-winner decider, but her position near the catching pen meant she had no way of knowing whether her promising pup had held on in a nail-biting finish.
“You just have to hold your breath and make sure they get around safe and then look straight up at the scoreboard,” Harris explains.
“Right up until the end I didn’t know if he had won or not.”
It wasn’t until long-time friend Frank Micallef assured her Topper Teretto had kept the fast-finishing Benteke at bay that Harris allowed herself to celebrate.
“I was holding on to Frank’s arm and he probably has bruises all over him. I was jumping up and down screaming and he was too because his is a good friend of ours,” Harris said.
“It was pretty emotional but a very good win.”
Heading into the final on the back of two impressive wins in the heats and semis, Anthony Azzopardi trained Topper Teretto was the $2.80 second favourite behind Benteke ($2.60).
Topper Teretto got away moderately from box four and copped a check at the first turn before battling on along the rails.
He stole a break down the back on Benteke which proved a winning one as Brett Bravo’s classy sprinter could only close in to within half-a-length.
Phillip Cini’s Notorious Thief ($26) battled on well for third.
“It was pretty heart wrenching,” Harris said.
“One minute I thought he was okay and then the next minute he got a check.
“You didn’t know who was going to win to the very end and had to hold your breath the whole way.
“It wasn’t an easy win for him, he had to work all the way to the end.
“It is not really good when you have Benteke behind you who is a pretty smart pup as well.”
The triumph was made more satisfying for Harris, who bred Topper Teretto herself.
Topper’s Teretto’s dam Cadence was Harris’s first ever greyhound and went on to win at her first start at Wentworth Park.
After breaking in the slowest of his litter, Topper Teretto soon began to show similar promise to his mother.
“We started pre-training him we knew he was going to be good because he just got better and better,” Harris said.
“He hurt himself when he went to break in but once he recovered he went really well.
“Every time we went to a track he would do really well first time and he was just that type of pup that first look anywhere he would go pretty good.
“He showed he could do it from a very young age.”
Connections were yet to decider where Topper Teretto would head next following the career best victory at Dapto.