Kibble and Biscuits Mick's Happy with Townsville ... - Greyhound-Data

LEFT: Star galloperSuellen Bale. She hasa litter by Brett Leeabout to race.RIGHT: Paul Wheeler... confident his nextgreat dog is justaround the corner.No need to panicyet says WheelerByDAVID BRASCHAUSTRALIA’S biggest breeder PaulWheeler admits he’s a bit concerned.He realizes it’s been a while since he hada “really good dog”, but he’s not about topanic.Wheeler has been a revolutionary inAustralian greyhound racing, specially thepattern of breeding he has undertaken forgenerations.He has embraced the use of US siresthrough the frozen semen program, has shiftedto a lavish new complex on 1400 acres atBoorowa, and admits to having between 400and 500 dogs.But he’s also re-positioning himself in theAustralian greyhound market, and througheconomic pressures has severed his ties withthe US industry.“I’ve stopped sending dogs to the US,”he told The Journal.“A number of factors have forced that.“Firstly the exchange rate has been a biginfluence. When the US dollar was worthtwice the Australian dollar, our return fromsuccess in the US was worth much more thanit is today.“And since the disaster of September 11in the US, the cost of freight to the US hasgone through the roof.“It’s just not as profitable to send dogs tothe US, and more expensive to do it.”Wheeler is not unhappy he gave the USmarket a try.He sent 20 racing dogs to the US and somemade it to top grade at the major tracks.Former Queensland-trained galloper NeilBale was one. He made AA Grade at CorpusChristi but ended his career when he broke aleg. Mick Zammit trained him in Queensland.Wheeler said he had one problem with theUS style of racing, the manner in which tracksare prepared.“Surfaces in Australia are far superior.The Yanks claim hard tracks are not as safeand you will not get as many starts out of dogsrunning on the Australia-type surfaces,” saidWheeler.“But the tracks there are very loose andthey do not put a lot of water on them. Ibelieve we get less injuries in Australiabecause the dogs are built for speed and theUS tracks are not prepared for that.“It’s like running on waters edge, orrunning further up the beach. Which is thehardest?”It has been 10 years since Wheeler firstembraced the use of frozen semen from theUS.“I thought our Australian dog was gettingtoo in-bred and I was forced to use Americandogs because it was the only place we couldget frozen semen,” said Wheeler.“Semen from the best Irish dogs is onlynow coming into Australia and I have alreadygot litters on the ground by Spiral Nikita andCool Performance.”But Wheeler is far from disappointed withhis US experiment even though he is the firstto admit he hasn’t had a “really good dog”for a while.“I’ve got a lot of good gallopers by USsires, and a lot of the bitches by US sires arenow producing winners and lots of winners,for us,” he said.“The US dog is tougher. If a dog doesn’thave 100 or more starts in the US, it generallyis not even bred with. We are now findingour dogs are having 100 and more starts.“I put this down to the US influence.”Wheeler says it is more beneficial to himto have a dog racing constantly, more than100 times in a career, and thus moreopportunities for a financial return, than onethat breaks down constantly.“I found the Temlee influence was makingour dogs too fine,” he said. “They couldn’tstand up to regular racing. In a lot of caseswe have overcome that.”But Wheeler, while firmly entrenched athis new property, is also at the crossroads inhis operation.“We have 400 to 500 dogs and that’s toomany,” he said. “I’m 50 years old and for thepast six months we have been full on. I’mplanning to reduce the size of my operationin the future.“We have four in our family and betweensix and eight staff working this property.Three families make a living out of thisoperation.”He said he has so many bitches that arebroodbitch potential it is too much for hisoperation and he is now being forced toreduce these numbers.“At the moment we have between 60 and70 bitches we could breed with. I’ve got somebitches who are five or six years old who werecity winners who might have had one litter ornever been bred with.“This is simply because we can’t copewith them all breeding, every time they comeon season.”Wheeler said he would prefer to reducethis number to between 30 and 40.“It’s pointless keeping all those bitches ifwe can’t use them,” he said. “It’s too big aworkload.”His sons Scott and Brendan have movedinto the former Wheeler property at The Oaksand are breaking in and doing some trainingof all the family dogs.“OK, I know we haven’t had a really gooddog for a few years,” said Wheeler. “But Ialso have 50 or more pups all by Brett Leeout of some of our best race bitches, likeSuellen Bale and Alarming Bale, about readyto go to the trainers."While that lack of a really good dog is aconcern, Wheeler admits he’s seen it before.“In all the years my family has been inthis industry, from my father’s involvement,through to today, we’ve run through a fewEncounterTrack Openfrom 8am inWinterTues, Thurs,Saty& SundayOur trackremarkably similarto Albion ParkKennels & Breaking-inRearingSpellingAny inspection ofour complex iswelcome (phonefor appointment).Track Distances300m, 520m.Sand Surface.Rearing yards200m longCall Rick Fall(07) 54264338 or 0427 264338Breaking-inpatches where we haven’t had those stars.“But we have always bounced back. TheBrett Lee experiment is about to come tofruition.”But Wheeler is not happy with the wayservice fees have gone in recent times.Young dogs coming off the track,unproven at stud, standing for $3000 andmore. Brett Lee and others commandingprices now reaching $10,000 at a time.“It’s getting harder and harder all thetime,” he said. “Breeding has gone into thetoo hard basket for a lot of people.”He says he is happy with the USexperiment.“EJ’s Douglas was very good to us, andhis bitches have kept breeding on. The Braddybitches have also bred on.,” he said.“We are now looking to the Irish dogsbecause we are now able to get the very bestof their sires like Larkhill Jo and SpiralNikita.”He says he will continue to send dogs outto trainers throughout the country.“You can’t really say we are scaling downour operation. Let’s say we are resizing it,”he said.The (September, 2005) Journal Page 11