Dubuque, Iowa: Pat C Dogs Let the Bettors Down at Dubuque Greyhound Park

The $55,000 Dubuque Classic Stakes got underway Saturday evening, August 11th, with four first round qualifying races at Dubuque Greyhound Park in Iowa. The stakes is contested over the 680 yard Dubuque Course and the final is set for September 1st. In the first round of elimination races, in which the greyhounds vie for points based on where they finish and the top eight point-getters go to the big race, there were surprises as just one favorite was able to come away victorious. In one heat, a 60-1 shot almost pulled off the upset of the year at Dubuque Greyhound Park, while the trio of big closing Pat C dogs failed to make it up for even a second place showing.

In the first elimination, Sobe Blueberry got it together just in time to romp to a seven length victory in 39.44 seconds. Blueberry was the top router at Bluffs Run earlier this season before going stale, and it was thought that a trip across state to Dubuque would get her back on track. But after winning her first Dubuque route from way back, she managed just a second and a third in her next quartet of starts. However, Blueberry was more than up to the task in Round One of the Classic Stakes, as the blue brindle female charged to the head of the pack right from the get-go and never was threatened. JS Radical Ness, a new arrival in grade A at Dubuque, chased Blueberry all the way around, while Pat C Go Boy, one of the best routers at Naples-Ft. Myers and Dubuque this year, could muster only a fourth place effort after early trouble. Go Boy always breaks poorly and then flies like gangbusters late, but he was coming off a month layoff and may not have been at his sharpest. Go Boy needs to quickly regain the form that saw him leave Florida as a beaten favorite in a stakes final and then win five of seven routes after arriving in Iowa.