Wheeling Downs in Wheeling, West Virginia hosted the twelfth race of the 19th Night of Stars program on Saturday, May 12th, where a shocking payoff occured when the three top favorites in the race all ran off the board. The Night of Stars is a twice-a-year event that features the best greyhounds from various dog racing venues across the nation battling it out, simulcast into other dog tracks and race books with some of the proceeds going to aid greyhound adoption. The Wheeling edition of this program was run over their 678 yard route distance at the Wheeling Island Racing and Gaming Center, located on Wheeling Island near the Ohio border with the Mountaineer State. The top grade race contained eight dogs that all displayed racing lines that showed they were more than capable of winning this Night of Stars tilt, but nobody could have expected this one to play out the way it did. Well, almost nobody.
All the participants in this race were seasoned routers, but Café Queen with the one hole, Gable Cuidano in the two, and Genesis Place out in the six were made the betting choices by the national wagering public. Opalescent in the seven seemed to be overlooked, as she showed three wins and a pair of driving place efforts in her last six. Whaling Wildfire in the eight had a twelve length annihilation of Wheeling AA dogs for all to see, as well as nine wins in his last eighteen outings. Armys Mistress in the three and TNJ Rodeo Joe in the six had run with and beaten most of this field in their recent exploits, so they could not be ignored. CS Bosco in the middle, the five box, had shown in the past at Wheeling that he was no pushover, having run 38.03 over this yardage earlier in the year; only Gable Cuidano owned a faster time this season at 37.99.
When the box opened, the eight dog, Whaling Wildfire and the six, Genesis Place, tangled enough to offstride, sending Genesis Place back into the pack and derailing Wildfire enough to allow CS Bosco the chance to grab the lead. Café Queen also encountered enough trouble on the break to make her irrelevant for the rest of the contest. As the greyhounds rushed through the escape turn and down the front stretch for the first time, Bosco, a 75 pound brindle male out of Greys Flamebeau and TBO’s Oriana, opened up a formidable lead of at least five lengths by the time the first turn call was reached, with Wildfire in second and Rodeo Joe in third. As the eight went through the curtain turn and down the Wheeling backside, Armys Mistress and Gable Cuidano both threw back their ears and pulled up a bit, for reasons that could not be ascertained from just watching the proceedings on the television screen. Both have run this distance numerous times, so it was an odd occurrence, but from where they were at that point it didn’t really matter much anyways.
Opalescent, who had broken from the box much like a child is led into a dentist office, reluctantly, had recovered sufficiently to be running in fourth place by the time this field was more than halfway home. CS Bosco held his five length margin as he ran into the far turn and Whaling Wildfire was not about to catch him. Opalescent came along the rail and flew like the wind, but the red fawn bitch had too much ground to cover and fell short by a couple of body lengths at the wire. CS Bosco cruised the 678 yards in 39.31 for his eighth victory of the year at Wheeling, followed over the line by Opalescent, Whaling Wildfire, and TNJ Rodeo Joe. Once the order of finish was verified and the payoffs posted on the toteboard, the fun began for those who had figured this one out beforehand.
For starters, CS Bosco paid $20.20 to win and along with Opalescent combined to create an $83.60 quiniela. The trifecta was good for another $773.80, but the superfecta is what made many gasp and someone feel faint if they held that ticket in their hands. The 5-7-8-4 combo of greyhounds going off at odds of 9-1, 12-1, 4-1 and 17-1 was worth $16,014, which some either very clever or very lucky gambler from somewhere in the country will be able to brag about for some time to come.
