Jacksonville, Florida; Kiowa Wish Frank Captures 2007 Orange Park Puppy Stakes

The $20,000 2007 Orange Park Puppy Stakes had six greyhounds running in it that, despite the fact that they were born in 2005, had plenty of experience competing on the Jacksonville oval. The race, held down in Florida on Saturday evening, May 26th, was for the best of the Orange Park Kennel Club puppies, with no greyhound born before 2005 allowed to contend for the title. The four elimination rounds yielded a fine field of youngsters for the finals, with the aforementioned half dozen having at least twenty-seven career starts under their belts, with a pair having run in some forty races. In the end however, the other two dogs in the 2007 Orange Park Puppy Stakes, a couple that had just twenty-three races combined on their resume, showed that sometimes raw talent can make up for a lack of seasoning in the greyhound world.

Kiowa Wish Frank and Kiowa Wild Boy were easily the youngest greyhounds in this race; Wild Boy is an October 2005, while Wish Frank was whelped in November of that year. The next youngest dog was Barts Classified, who was born in June, two years ago. The four month difference may not seem like much to those unfamiliar with greyhound racing, but believe me, it is substantial. The top level greyhounds get better and better the more they run, as they learn the ins and outs of what goes on in a race. On a circuit as difficult as Jacksonville is, it is amazing to see a greyhound that is eighteen or nineteen months old able to make a stakes finals, never mind two of them. And imagine now that both were from the same kennel.

James E. O'Donnell Kennel sent both of these dogs into the big race, as well as another, TMC's Dogbone, a brindle male that had run some forty-four contests at Orange Park. Dogbone was in the one hole, Kiowa Wild Boy, a diminutive 60 pound fawn male, occupied the two, and Kiowa Wild Frank wore yellow in the six. Each had won two of their four elimination heats, but the betting public made Dogbone a slight choice to take it all, based on his post-position and his fifteen wins in those forty something races. Dogbone had more wins than the other two had starts, but this mattered little once the box opened.