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| Sheriff McManus | | Print | |
| Written by Greg | |
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Sheriff Austin ? how good is this dog? By rights he should be retired and lazing about on some one?s couch watching his younger rivals strut their stuff on a Rick hart plasma screen. But no, the Sheriff just keeps coming back defying the odds each and every time. And yep, he?s done it again. On Saturday night just gone, he went straight to the front in the top grade race and never looked like getting run down. For Christ?s sake the dog is over four years old! Sheriff Austin is the Shaun McManus with skills (No offence Macca). The Sheriff has had the equivalent of two knee reconstructions and made two come backs. There was enormous doubt over his ability to find the top form again after such horrendous setbacks and we expected many lengths would be lost. But in true Shauny Mac fighting style, he has not only made it back but made it back bigger and better than before. The Sheriff is flying and going that well he has been offered another performance based contract! Sheriff Austin has had three runs back from his latest injury and has racked up two wins and a second, picking up almost $8,000 in stakes. It takes his career tally to forty seven starts for eleven wins, ten seconds and seven thirds and has earned almost $27,000 in stakes. What hurts is we will never know what the Sheriff was truly capable of. For a dog with two serious injuries to get back to racing when he is over four is a massive achievement. But to get back to what he is doing is entirely something else. Usually just one of the injuries that the Sheriff has had ends careers and many dogs, even without injury, fail to see racing at four years old. The Sheriff will now have a well earned week off. Linda is in awe of this dog given his nature, spirit and what he has done so she is nursing him along. She?ll give him every possible chance to stand up and if that means one week off in three or four starts then so be it. It?s been a roller coaster ride for the dockerland Racing Syndicate with the Sheriff. We?ve been on highs and within an instant hit the lows. It?s been a ride which I believe not too many of the dockerland members would swap for anything. We can only hope the rolling highs continue with him for a while yet. |
