Spring Meet Full of Surprises

The end result of the Sunflower State Stake was the first surprise and a highly successful auction was another that helped shape the 2025 spring meet.   

The outlook coming in to the 2025 spring meet was a bit hesitant as available pups and entry numbers looked to be rather low, but thanks to some local farms,  breeders and their clients, 70 pups entered the meet with 50 consigned to the auction.  That 70 included 16 entered in the Sunflower Sprint.

The 2025 version of the Sunflower State Sprint was a few entries short of a full field when, after some prodding, Monte Jacobs stepped up and, somewhat reluctantly, bought up four spaces to bring the race to a full 16 greyhound field. His littermates, ML Side By Side, ML Side Hustle, ML Sleek Side and ML Side Action, joined Jaws Racing's WW Solid Rock, WW Dance Party and ADH Top Secret; Bobby Woodall's pair of BL Community and BL Big Red; Bob Hardison's Allon Z and Vamos; Louise & Greg Strong's GLS Yes I Did, GLS Uncle Sid and GLS Little Rona while Jerry Patterson entered Shelton and Johnny Cash to fill out the field. 

To many onlookers surprise, the Jacobs littermates, co-owned by Lawrence Smith, swept three of the four qualifiers in round one with Strong's GLS Uncle Sid taking the only other first round win. 2nd place finishers from the first round included BL Community, GLS Yes I Did, ADH Top Secret and GLS Little Rona.

In the final, Jacobs' troops stayed sharp with the trio taking early control after GLS Uncle Sid stumbled slightly at the break.  ML Side Hustle took the early lead followed by ML Side Action and ML Side By Side. ML Side Action pressed the leader throughout and went by him in the stretch to win by one and a half lengths in 30.20, tied for the 2nd fastest time of the meet. Side Hustle held on for place and ML Side By Side finished third for a sweep for the owners by the littermates.

Congratulations to Monte, Lawrence and their team for a dominant performance in  the 2025 Sunflower State Sprint Stake!

The Flite I of the stake was picked up by Lousie & Greg Strong's GLS Yes I Did who went box to wire, outdistancing BL Community by two lengths in the same winning time as the stake final, 30.20. Jaws Racing's ADH Top Secret, who is owned by Arlan Hall gained the show spot with GLS Little Rona finishing 4th.

Jerry Patterson's Shelton, who many thought to be the stake favorite, showed his class with a big effort to capture the Flite II of the stake, overcoming much trouble to win by a length over pacesetter, BL Big Red in 30.76.  Jacob's ML Sleek Side finished third, just two lengths off the winner and WW Solid Rock finishing 4th some seven and half back.

While Jacobs and Jaws Racing ran their stock through the stake, the Woodall entries were handled by Tom & Brant Taplin and David Strong did the work for the Hardison, Strong (Greg & Louise) and Patterson entries.  

Thanks to all that participated in the event!

Another stake event will be offered at the Fall meet. That stake will be the 4th running of  the Abilene Shootout and will follow along the same format with meet age pups being eligible and the $500 nomination fee being due by September 1, 2025 . 

Jerry Patterson ended up with the top selling greyhound at the meet.  His Shelton went for $13,500 to William McCarthy. Jaws Racing was the top  consignor for the meet selling full and half interest in a combination of pups and track dogs for a total of $143,250. Total sales for the auction were $241,750 which seemed rather stunning based on pre-meet chatter and the eventual number of pups consigned.

2025 NGA Spring Auction Stats

Pups Consigned: 50

Broods and Track Dogs Consigned: 6

Pups Sold: 41

Broods/Track Dogs Sold: 6

Buyers: 16

Total sales: $241,750

Total online purchases: $93,000