Palm Beach Weekly Wrap Up 12-4-2016

Welcome to holiday racing!  Most of the country is starting to see its first snowflakes in a while but not South Florida.  Paradise is still as beautiful as ever and the racing is starting to heat up.

Here's the top stories we saw from America's favorite greyhound destination last week at "The Beach."

Ethel Continues To Roll

One of the greatest athletes Palm Beach has ever seen is just remarkable.  Ethel Is Here from the Janie Carroll Kennel picked up her 61st career victory on the "Rhonda" Course during Superstar Saturday's Matinee, booming a box to wire victory in typical Ethel style.  The track record holder turns 4 next month but is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.  Easily the most popular athlete Palm has currently, nobody gets the fans quite as jazzed as when Ethel gets the call.

It won't be too long before we are talking about last years track champion going for 70.

Morgan Stays

With Hollywood Park in Hallandale starting up their Winter Meet over the weekend, it was expected that Fraulein Morgan was set to travel down there for the second straight year.  Turning a 180 on their original decision to send her, owners of Morgan made a wise choice IMO and kept Morgan at Palm Beach for the foreseeable future.  The season wins leader with 17 W's has been a monster for owner Monte Jacobs and gives the Carroll Kennel two formidable threats for another Derby title with Ethel & the "Bachelorette."

Fans will continue to clamor for Morgan & Ethel to have more starts against each other.  I've got a feeling we'll see the two superstars squaring off sometime during the holiday season.

November Top 10 Revealed

One of our favorite things to put together is our monthly Top 10 Rankings at Palm Beach.  With so much parity happening this season in what I have compared to one wild west shootout, a few athletes made major moves in November.

Fraulein Morgan stayed at the top of the polls after widening her track championship lead during the month.

Whirlin Toodlelu from the Douglas Kennel made the case she is the best sprinter around, moving all the way up to the second spot in our rankings. "Toodles" races are some of the most entertaining around because of her sensational closing efforts.

Cbj Tootsie Roll (pictured top) moved up to the 5th position after scoring three victories during the month.  "Tootsie" also remained a money making machine, as she only has missed the quiniela  once since early September and hasn't missed the board all season.

Here's the complete Rankings:

https://extra.betamerica.com/palm-beach-top-10-rankings-november-2016/

$20,000 Futurity Field Set To Roll

Stakes Season is officially about to get real.

The kickoff to the greatest time in our sport happens this Wednesday, as the $20K Dick Andrews Futurity gets cracking.  40 of the best two year old and under puppies get their first taste of tournament action, with the final set for the day after Christmas.

Anyone that has watched these puppy stakes knows that class usually gets the upper hand when all is said and done, but we are guaranteed to see a few long shots come out of nowhere to surprise. Wicked Twista (pictured top) & O Ya Sunflower will be the early favorites without question.  We will have our preview out on Wednesday morning, with picks from greyhound royalty around the country chiming in on who they believe will be raising the silverware at tournaments end.

Another BetAmerica Greyhound Wins At Palm Beach

After the huge success of our first greyhound to run here BetOn BetAmerica raced her way into the hearts of race fans the last two seasons, BetAmerica Elite from the Brindle Kennel is set to take on the pressure that comes with bearing our company name.  Elite in only her fourth ever race smoked the stopwatch for her first ever victory Saturday night in 30.17 secs.  The seven and a half length victory had the streets of our home in San Francisco lined with people celebrating the win and excited for the future of the new hometown hero.

Here's the replay of Elite's Graduation Day victory:

http://www.trackinfo.com/video-box.jsp?raceid=gPB%2420161203E01

The deadline for the 8 invites to the 2017 version of our National Championship came and went on Saturday evening, with no word yet on who had accepted and how many spots are currently open. Palm Beach owners need to keep their phones on and be ready in case a spot does open up. United Greyhound Racing should starts announcing the field very quickly this month.  Stay tuned!

Tom Terrific On The Comeback Trail

One of the greatest super pups in the history of this track Sg's Tom Seaver from the Janie Carroll Kennel is set to return after a 9 month extended vacation.  Seaver schooled on Sunday morning, finishing a distant 7th.  After the long South FLA vacation, its going to take a while for Seaver to get back in shape but at just 3 years old, should still have a lot of racing left in him.

You will remember Seaver was historic in his rookie campaign last season, reeling off 7 straight victories to begin his career and also making the Final of the He's My Man Classic.

Only JS SpeedyPebbles back in 2013 had a better start to her career as "The Queen" was able to win a record 8 straight to begin her racing journey.

That's all we have for this week.  See you next time for the Wrap Up!