Ros Hume and Geoff Collins celebrate Zara Zulu’s Australian Cup win with Geelong footballers Tom Hawkins (top) and Joel Selwood.By Danny Buttler
A LOCAL couple have snared the owner and trainer double at this year’s Australian Cup for greyhounds.
Zara Zulu, which is trained by Ros Hume and owned by her partner Geoff Collins, bolted home to take the $175,000 first prize in the Group 1 classic.
After Saturday night’s race, Ros paid tribute to the young chaser, who showed brilliant early speed to take out the race in a respectable time of 30.14 seconds at The Meadows.
“It is always an advantage to draw box one with a dog who begins as well as Zara Zulu, but to see her begin well and show the courage she did tonight is amazing,” she said.
“Geoff and I have a really good partnership, and we are so happy that Mogambo – a dog we stand at stud – has now produced a Group 1 winner.”
The win comes a decade after Isa Brown, another dog owned by Geoff, won the race under the guidance of trainer Robert Britton.
Zara Zulu took full advantage of the number one box to scoot in front along the rails, holding off the field for a start to finish victory.
It was just the 15th start for the young bitch, who could become one of the all-time greats of the track if she can reach her potential.
Despite her perfect box, Zara Zulu started second favourite ($4.20) behind Melbourne Cup winner Dyna Tron ($3.50), who was striving for the rare Melbourne/Australian cups double.
Dyna Tron came in third behind Gordon Bale.
