LEFT: English Derbywinner Loyal Honcho atSeamus Graham's Irelandkennels.RIGHT: Darryl Schafercaught up with SeamusGraham one of the legendsof Irish-English greyhoundracing.Darryl gets his capand 'picks thebrains' of someIrish legendsABOVE LEFT: Paul and Sue Hennessy with their daughter at his property in Ireland.ABOVE RIGHT: Their property and the 30-dog walker. BELOW: Paul's son Kevin afanatical greyhound follower at the family's 600 yard gallop.Jedi GreyhoundKennels54246417 or0414991293* Rearing from birth to whenever* Spelling, Broodbitch care* Limited Pre-training and Training* Quality meat fed* Regular flea and worm control* Regular handling and bathing* Large galloping yard* All yards have brick kennelling* 350m straight track. Close to all trial tracks* Pups taught to lead and grab* Small yards to big yards to suit your needsFOR a few decades now, Darryl Schaferhas wanted one of those neat little HarrisTweed caps.So he and wife Sue headed over toScotland to get one … an original of course.And Darryl never took it off his scalp duringan extended holiday overseas. He reckons hemight not have much call for it is the humidityof the Northern Rivers of NSW where theformer <strong>Queensland</strong>er has set up a greyhoundrearing business.But that cap wasn’t the only thing Darryland Sue picked up while overseas.They got to go dog racing at five differenttracks in Ireland and took in the breeding andtraining establishments of some of the mostfamous names in the industry.While Darryl was impressed with what hesaw, he is still adamant greyhound racingAussie style is the best by far. And the localswere in awe when Darryl told them low graderaces paid $3100 to the winner everyThursday night at Albion Park.“We got to see racing at Harolds Cross inDublin where 5000 people attend on a Fridaynight,” Darryl told The Journal.27 Jamieson Rd Churchable 4311Shannon & RodneyGlasscockHave reared some good open class dogs already and from our very first breeding had JediHazard run 23.04 and Jedi Angel run 23.08 (wet track ) on their Maiden wins at Gold Coast.“We went to Tralee dog track on aTuesday night when 500 people were there,were among a crowd of 3000 at the new trackin Belfast called Drumbrae Park just a weekafter it had opened.“And Sue and I got to see the Irish Derbyfinal among a crowd of 10,000.”But it was the hands-on experience thatDarryl enjoyed most.His first port of call was to legendary Irishdog man Seamus Graham who has preparedfour Irish and one English Derby winner andtrained the great Premier Fantasy who he nowstands at stud alongside his 2008 EnglishDerby winner Loyal Honcho.Premier Fantasy tragically broke downwhen raging hot favourite for the EnglishDerby. Loyal Honcho was also runner-up in2007. “Seamus is such a humble man,” saidDarryl. “His two storey home sits in themiddle of 180 acres of sheep country inKillarney. He has an entire wall full of majorgreyhound racing trophies.”Graham has trained many a greatgreyhound.“He’s got a 400 yard uphill straight track,but only ever has a small kennel of dogs intraining,” said Darryl. “He’s very select. Hebreeds only one litter of pups a year himselfbut is always in demand as a trainer.“Every dog is galloped up his straightevery second day, and only behind the draglure when he feels they need a hard gallop.“Seamus is a very gentle man and it reflectson his dogs. You could see every one of thosedogs watched everything he did when he wasin the kennels with them. They loved him. Itwas obvious.“Seamus is a big feeder and a good feeder.His dogs all had very big backs on them butthey obviously had to cater for the coldclimate.”Darryl and Sue moved on to PaulHennessy one of Ireland’s premier greyhoundtrainers. He has 200 dogs in training, six staffand all this from a five-acre property that isinside his father’s huge property.“Paul is in his early 40s and is passionateabout his dogs,” said Darryl. “And I havenever met a more passionate greyhound manthan Paul’s 18-year-old son Kevin.”The Hennessy kennels are huge shedsheated in winter and cooled in summer. Allempty out yards are undercover. The propertyis about an hour’s drive from Dublin.One feature of the Hennessy property ishis 30-dog walker which every dogs utilizesThe (February, 2009) Journal Page 18
RIGHT: Darryl and Sue Schafer at theDunphy's Irish stud-rearing property.for 30 minutes daily.But the real standout is the 600 yard“gallop”.“The gallop runs for 300 yards and thenturns right and runs another 300 yards uphill,”said Darryl. “Every dog in training with Paulgoes up that straight every second day. Theyonly stop a day before they race.“From January 1 to September last year,Hennessy won 1200 races.”The straight track surface is a mixture ofsand and sawdust and cost E20,000($A40,000) to put in. “It’s kept immaculate,”said Darryl. “And Paul allows local trainersto use it as well.”Galloping up the straight is an art andinvolves 24 dogs at a time.“Paul stands in a tower at the end of thecatching pen,” said Darryl. “There is a coupleof workers in the huge catching pen andchains everywhere in the pen.“A lead dogs is let go first and then groupsof four dogs follow at 30 metre intervals untilall 24 dogs are galloped.”The dogs run into a huge catching penand are caught and clipped up to the chainsin the pen.From the Hennessy property, Darryl andSue went to see the famous Dunphy family’sbreeding and rearing complex.The family stands 12 studs dogs includingDroopy’s Kewel, Droopy’s Maldini,Westmead Hawk, Ace Hi Rumble etc etc.Darryl was impressed with all the stud dogsLetter to the Editorsaying all looked exceptionally well.“They breed and rear and then send theirown dogs out to trainers,” said Darryl. “Theproperty is acres of dogs … acres and acresof dogs.”A long shed contains the whelping boxes.There were six litters just whelped when Darryland Sue were there.The pups move on to 50ftx30ft pens withtheir mother at six weeks and then into holdingpens that opened into five and 10 acrepaddocks. “They had 300 pups being rearedon the property when we were there.”One feature of the complex Darryl wantsto incorporate into his own rearing businessis a u-shaped track that runs around some ofthe holding paddocks.“It would be the size of the trotting trackat Albion Park,” he said. “Six pups are let outinto this at a time once a week from about 10months of age until going to breaking in at 13months.“One of the boys then gets onto a motorbike and the pups chase him once around thetrack and then the bike turns and goes theother way. The pups would run about 1000 to2000 metres.“They are still allowed every day into thefive and 10 acre paddocks to free gallop.”Darryl says the Dunphys will keep a bitchfrom most of the litters they breed and earmarkher for breeding later on. He says theygenerally keep the bitch that is the samecolour as her mother.Dear Sir,As I open my paper on Friday 16-1 09 as usual to look at the dog fields for the afternoonmeeting I notice today is a bit different.Yes,10 races but only 61 dogs drawn of which 42 wereunplaced at their last start.As the powers to be scratch their heads and ask where are all the dogs, I ask myselfwhere are all the people who train them? They’re exactly where I am, at work earning adollar. The great thing that attracts me and many others to this sport is the hands on aspectof it. You can buy your own dog, rear it, educate it and train it yourself.The people who are the majority shareholders in this sport are part time trainers with afull time job. When the kennels close at 2pm on twilight meetings most trainers are at workwhile their dogs are at home resting in their kennels.The days of taking endless hours off work to race dogs are ancient history in thesecurrent economic times. To say there aren’t enough dogs around doesn’t make sense to me.On Thursday 15-1-09 Ipswich trialled from 6.30am until10am and from 4.30pm to 9pm.The dogs are there but the opportunity to race them isn’t. The fact is the so called twilightmeetings are afternoon meetings during daylight saving months (6 months of the year)in<strong>Queensland</strong>.I think there are a couple of simple changes that can help the clubs and trainers fill thefields. 1 Kennelling times 45 minutes like Albion on Tuesday. It was proposed by Danny Ryana couple of months ago closing 30 minutes before race 1. 2 If Sky stops broadcasting at 10pmEST make the last race at 9.57 and space races back from there. 3 Twilight races, tell skyto start after 4pm.We need twilight meetings not afternoon meetings.I believe there are animal welfare issues with dogs sitting in a traffic jam on the motorwayin 35 degree heat travelling to Ipswich. These ideas might not be the answers but they willhelp and make it easier to get to the races. We obviously need a weekend date which is whenevery one gets a fair go. Help us the participants help the industry.Paul Hennelly“It’s is not necessarily a hard and fast rulebut one that has been successful for them.“If they sell a bitch pup, they insist it racesunder the ‘Droopy’s’ prefix, and if she is goodenough will take her back on a pup deal withthe purchaser,” said Darryl.“And if they get a bitch that breaks inexceptionally, they will wait until she has aseason and breed with her before putting herinto training after that.“They sell lots of pups but insist theyrear any pup they sell themselves.” grading system in operation.He says the family has a big staff to help “Each dog must trial before it races,” heout, are good feeders of their pups. “The said. “AO is open grade races, and then theproperty was spotless,” he said.grades run from A1 down to A10. If forOf their breeding methods, Darryl says instance your dog trials 30.50 around Albionthe Dunphys are only now starting to come Park, it could be graded into A4 even before itaround to the close inbreeding that has been races. There are no maiden races, but a lot ofa popular success within Australian unraced stakes and puppy classics.”greyhound bloodlines.Greyhound racing is a way of life inDarryl and Sue enjoyed their night at Ireland. “We even saw a 10-year-old walkingShelbourne Park for the Derby final. the dog to the boxes for the start of a race.“As soon as you walked into the track The child’s mother waited at the boxes andyou were handed a strip of stickers with the put the dog in.”name of each of the Derby finalists,” he said. He said the Dunphys were preparing a“You could put onto your coat the sticker of coursing dog for the up-coming classics atthe Derby finalist your fancied.Clonmel. “It looked more like a great dane …“Sponsor Paddy Power handed out hats it was huge.”to just about everyone who attended and the Darryl and Sue couldn’t help but bewinner’s connections took home E175,000 impressed with many aspects of greyhound($A348,000). The night was tremendous.” racing Irish style. But they are convincedDarryl was not so impressed with the there is no place like home.Pat MarchantGBOTA NewsWell here we are again another year has been and gone.We were very saddened by the loss of two of the great people of our industry in Col Harrisand Jimmy Roy. To all their families we extend our deepest sympathy.I attended a meeting at <strong>Greyhounds</strong> <strong>Queensland</strong> where we discussed the grading systemand several motions were put forward and these will be taken to the board for approval andwill come into affect July 1.As many of the trainers who were at Capalaba last Saturday would have noticed theQGBOTA has taken over the canteen there and we had a very good response to the food whichwas placed on the menu and its quality.So we are looking for any members out there to come along and give us a hand on aSaturday afternoon for a few hours. Any help will be greatly appreciated.We are having our next quarterly meeting in the Gatton area in March and we will notifyyou of the date and venue when it becomes available.As you are aware there is no further progress on the Logan track as yet but you will benotified on the <strong>Greyhounds</strong> <strong>Queensland</strong> website of any progress that takes place.Hoping that this year ahead will be a successful one for all the owners and trainers outthere and I wish you all safe racing for the year ahead.Happy New Year to all from the PresidentGolden ViewGreyhound Complex1169 Atkinsons Dam Rd, Atkinsons DamBreak-Ins $70 per weekRe-Education $70 per weekRearing $35 per weekSpelling $35 per weekPublic Trials Mon, Tue, Fri, Sat,Sun (Summer trial times 7-8.30am)Contact:Alan and Casey Dargusch(07) 54264227Recent winners Educated & re-educated at GV ...Other Mob (Alb Pk), Collision Beauty (Alb Pk), Ima Lifesaver(Alb Pk), Bozo's A Surfer (Alb Pk.Spelled at GV: Dim Thing (Alb PkThe (February, 2009) Journal Page 19
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