18-Year Wait Worth It For Bosco And Christine

BACK in 2005, Bosco Stamenkovic and his partner Christine Costa celebrated the success of the great bitch Bothing in the Champion Puppy at Angle Park.

The daughter of Solve The Puzzle-Which Wire would go on to win the National Distance, the West End Stayers Cup and run a track record at Gawler and Launceston.

She was something else.

Stamenkovic and Costa have been waiting ever since to win another Champion Puppy and that moment came on Thursday night when Footrot Fender led from the back and held off Buzz The Hustler with Hurricane Carter in third.

Today, Costa and Stamenkovic admit work around their property where they have 10 nearing retirement, 13 in work of dogs they have bred and another 13 due to come into the kennels, was as easy as it has ever been.

They have been using the “Footrot” prefix ever since purchasing Footrot Flats (Mighty Close-Black Pennant) as a three-month-old pup back in 1976.

Footrot Flats was a star stayer of her time.

She became the mother of Footrot Faust the sire of Faustina Zulu and she is the sixth mother of Footrot Fender.

“Over the moon, both of us,” Costa said.

Footrot Fender for trainer Bosko Stamenkovic has taken out the 2023 Fresh Pet Food Co Champion Puppy with an excellent run. Buzz The Hustler for Maurie Kiley ran second and Hurricane Carter for Craig Jaensch finished third.
Catch the replay here ?? pic.twitter.com/abmTuxYnNl

— Greyhound Racing SA News (@GRSANews) July 20, 2023

“It is a tribute to the damline we have stuck to for many generations.

“It goes right back to the great Zulu Moss and that is a family saturated in the damline of Footrot Fender's sire Magic Sprite.”

Costa admitted she was beside herself with the win, but said from behind the boxes she could easily hear Bosco in the catching pen urging on yet another Footrot win.

“He is only a baby, not even two yet,” she said.

“He's paid up for the Breeders series here and then the Derby will come along.

“He was a bugger as a pup but has matured into a wonderful dog. There is no fear in him.”

Christine said only one of the pups from each litter they breed gets to carry the Footrot prefix, but she is working on Stamenkovic to name more that way.

Footrot Fender's third mother What A Blast (Awesome Assassin-Bomb Square) was a half sister to Bothing.

“We bred her to Collide and got a very nice bitch called Did It,” she said. “She fractured her skull as a pup running into a littermate.

“We mated her to the star Irish sire Premier County, the sire of Premier Fantasy, a semen straw we got from one of the locals.

“Did It had only one pup and amazingly it is a bitch, white and fawn the very same colour as Bothing.

“We named her Diana Huntress and she won a race at Angle Park but came up with an injury that stopped her racing.

“Footrot Fender is from her first litter.”