If greyhound racing ever needs a glowing endorsement it need look no further than Northern Rivers trainers Evelyn and Len Harris.
When Evelyn and Len celebrated 47 years of marriage on March 4 it almost coincided with their entry into the sport.
"Greyhounds have given Len and I the fullest of lives, they have enriched us so much," Evelyn said this week.
And Len added: "Everything we own came through greyhounds."
The Harrises trained out of WYONG for 45 years before moving to Whiteman’s Creek, 15km from Grafton, two years ago, and since then have landed winning doubles and trebles with monotonous regularity on their local tracks, as well as winning consistently on occasional forays to Wentworth Park and Gosford.
"As a young bloke I worked as a storeman at Steggles Chickens and the foreman, Tommy Robertson, had greyhounds," Len explained.
"Tommy, whose best mate was the late Jack Irwin, the legendary trainer and muscleman, allowed me clock off early to go and exercise his greyhounds.
"A friend of his gave us a bitch called Ted’s Top because she didn’t chase properly, she would go to the front and then wait for the other dogs.
"She ran 11 second placings for us and Jack Irwin suggested we retire her and mate her with his stud dog London Lad.
"We did and Ted’s Top produced Black London, who won a Maitland Gold Collar, and Helen’s Agogo, who won the last handicap race run at Grafton as a $34 chance.
"A friend of ours, Bob Lannstrom, owned Another Bonus who must have had nearly 100 starts at Wentworth Park alone for Eric Smith, and when she was retired she whelped a litter to Proper Tears.
"But none of the pups could run 500 metres so Bob asked Evelyn and I to take Another Bonus.
"We mated her to Rapid Journey and that litter won over 200 races while her third litter to Just The Best amassed another 200 wins.
"Another Bonus’ offspring included All Display, who won the 610m Grafton Cup and the Bull ‘n Barley Cup final at Wentworth Park, another Grafton Cup winner All Sized Up, All Amazing who won the Dave Alexander Memorial at Wenty, All Black Bonus, who won over 30 races and a very good sprinter, All A Dream.
"All Display went on to produce Display Bonus, dam of Magic Display, who has won three Wentworth Park races and is the best greyhound among our current kennel of 20 greyhounds.
"And All Display turned 14 recently and is still pottering around at home.
"I don’t bet now but when we lived at WYONG I was a big punter and because there were seven bookmakers at the MOSS VALE track I raced there most Saturdays to race while Evelyn would go to WYONG with other members of our team.
"Zoom Zoom was awarded MOSS VALE Greyhound of the Year for us while other good dogs we had around that time were Stepalong Kid, Stepalong Lad and Another Hombre.
"Stepalong Kid won 34 races and took out the Golden Oldies Trophy at WYONG as a seven year old, passing away at our place when he was 18 years of age.
"We backed Stepalong Lad from $17 to $4 one night at Wentworth Park and when he won it took us six races to collect all the money in brown paper bags.
"He was a great money dog, we plunged on him 19 times and he got the cash on 17 occasions.
"Another Hombre was nothing to look at, he had tiny short legs, pigeon toes and a roman nose, but he could run and one night he took $28,000 out of the betting ring at CESSNOCK, where big bookies like Herbie Purnell, Andy Dederer and Paul Solomons would let you on for plenty.
"But I stopped betting a few years ago because it became too hard to punt your way out of trouble if you started off losing and I’m glad I did, it’s less stressful for me and especially Evelyn!
"At Whiteman’s Creek we have 21 acres with a 366 metre straight track and 10 runs, each 100 metres long, for the pups.
"We breed a litter each year and rear and educate our own dogs, we have never had outsiders break in our young greyhounds.
"And we don’t need to trial on a track before we race because our dogs have invariably been front runners and good beginners.
"Reason for that is partly in our breed but also because we begin breaking them in behind the drag lure, where the silent hare starting off in front of the boxes forces the pups to crouch down and watch.
"We used to begin breaking them in at WYONG before finishing them off on a circle track, now we do it on our straight and then progress to one of the local circular courses."
Evelyn and Len Harris have been successful for more than four decades and are set to continue, especially as most of their dogs stay sound enough to race until they are four to four-and-a-half years of age.
