The Top Sprinters at Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park

Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park, located in Raynham, Massachusetts a half hour east of Providence, Rhode Island and 45 minutes south of Boston, boasts the top sprinters in the New England area. Eight of them are going to mix it up in the upcoming Night of Stars XIX, a national program of races from sixteen greyhound tracks in America that donates some of the proceeds from each race to greyhound adoption. Raynham is going to kick off the Night of Stars at 7:10 Eastern time with what on paper looks to be the toughest of the sixteen contests to handicap, as it is full of red-hot racers. To find out whom the top sprinters at Raynham-Taunton are, one need only look at this race. Four of these dogs have been on the very top of their game as of late. Pat C Clement is an October 2004 black male out of Flying Penske and Pat C Clementine that has reeled off seven victories in a row heading into the NOS race, none by less than four lengths. Clement has won 37 of his career 53 Raynham-Taunton outings, most by bolting to the front and pulling away. Pat C Clement has not been challenged as of late, but this NOS event is easily the toughest field he has ever had to contend with. Saddled with a poor post position, the five box, will make a fast break imperative if he is going to make it eight straight. He will be the favorite here. Fuzzys Ruffalo is by far the veteran of this group of top-notch Raynham-Taunton sprinters, a July 2003 product of Kiowa Sweet Trey and Fuzzys Dakota. Ruffalo is in the three box for the NOS race and has the rushing speed to make the front from such a spot. The winner of 5 of his 11 Raynham-Taunton trips to post in 2007, with 21 more wins coming last year, Fuzzys Ruffalo will be a serious contender to grab the brass ring, but only if he makes a fast exit from the starting box and some of the big guns behind him encounter trouble. Without the lead here, Ruffalo will be hard pressed to run in the money with such a powerful group in hot pursuit. Foray is all the way out in the eight box on the far outside but this 68 pound red fawn male out of Jawa Leonas and Leecadia figures to be right in the thick of things here. The three year old Foray rarely makes the front in the 550 yards sprint distance, instead relying on his late speed to catch the leaders. That formula has worked in his last 4 starts, as Foray as hauled down Raynham-Taunton sprinters in the stretch, a quartet of his 7 triumphs in 20 tries this season. Foray would be wise not to get too far behind some of the speedburners in the NOS contest, or even his great late foot will not be enough to earn him a win.

Perhaps the fastest greyhound running currently at Raynham-Taunton is Royal Reverie, the December 2004 red male whose father was Gable Dodge and whose mom was Royal Dream. Reverie on the lead is just about unbeatable; he is showing three double-digit wins in his last six starts. Reverie is also showing 3 separate times under 30.30 seconds for the 1,650 foot 5/16ths of a mile over that span of half a dozen starts, a pair of 30.27s and a 30.25. As a matter of fact, Royal Reverie has recorded 4 of the 5 fastest times run over the 5/16ths at Raynham-Taunton this year. To win this big race, Royal Reverie will have to do so from the four box, sandwiched in between some mind-numbing early speed that will make it very difficult with anything less than a stellar break from the boxes. Rounding out this NOS kick-off race is Bravo Kendra in the red blanket of the one box, a female that consistently hits the board; Starz Jimmie in the two, the youngest dog in the race and the possessor of some wonderful early speed with an inclination to tire late; hard-charging Bailey’s Alonzo in the six; and Willy Fixit in the seven, a brindle male that has hit the paysheet 19 out of 22 Raynham-Taunton starts this year. The best sprinter at Raynham-Taunton not in this NOS race is Fuzzys Gale, a stalwart who earlier this year won seven in a row and is coming off an impressive victory on the recent Kentucky Derby Day performance. However the NOS race at Raynham-Taunton turns out, one thing is for sure. The winner will have bragging rights over the rest of the top RT racers, if only until the next time they hook up at the Massachusetts oval.