An all-white greyhound with a "black patch" over her left eye is poised to pillage and plunder at Ballarat on Wednesday night.
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Not surprisingly her name is Pirates Patch and she's been doing some "looting" lately, having won three of her past six starts.
Ironically, Pirates Patch's owner-trainer Glenn Maxwell is a "landlubber". He's the Altona Sports Club's lawn bowls coach and greenkeeper.
A keen lawn bowler, Maxwell has won several premier league flags and a state championship. Maxwell, who is 48, purchased Pirates Patch as a pup for close to $5000 and she's rewarded him with almost $9000 in prizemoney.
A fellow lawn bowler, Warren Vogele, was the catalyst behind Maxwell's involvement in greyhound racing. Vogele formed a syndicate, comprising Maxwell, which raced handy sprinter Midfield Maestro. She won 10 races from 63 starts.
Midfield Maestro was eventually transferred to Altona Meadows trainer Malcolm Davis, who has become a close friend and mentor of Maxwell's. In fact, he trains Pirates Patch from Davis's premises.
Pirates Patch has won six races from 19 starts and, more importantly, has notched three wins in four starts from the red number one box which she'll occupy on Wednesday night.
She's been tipped to win by expert form analyst The Watchdog - albeit assessed as a $6.50 chance. The reason being is the greyhound in the yellow number five box, Jim Zarr Dashian ($1.80 favourite), is a rising star with five wins from only 11 starts.
"Pirates Patch has been beginning well," Maxwell said. "My hope is she flies out and gets a four or five length break as she'd be hard to catch."
Pirates Patch is in race 6 at 8.38pm.
The Ballarat Greyhound Racing Club received some much-needed assistance from its neighbours to complete Monday's meeting.
Late on the card, the track maintenance tractor broke down and left the meeting in jeopardy.
But a few phone calls eventually led to Ballarat and District Trotting Club chief executive Paul Rowse jumping in his car and driving to Bray Raceway to provide a back-up tractor.
This allowed the meeting to be completed with a short delay.
Greyhound racing in Victoria has been able to continue despite the COVID-19 crisis. A range of measures have been put in place to keep going, including a new boxing process which sees all greyhounds loaded one at a time. Vetting of dogs is being conducted in outdoor areas where possible while parading in front of the pavilion prior to each race has been cancelled.
