When Elvee Express led throughout at Wentworth Park last Friday night she was Northern Rivers' trainer Peter SIMPSON’s second Sydney winner from just four lifetime starters.
Nothing extraordinary in that, except that 55-year-old Peter grew up around greyhounds and did not have his first city runner until Rush Of Power won at Wentworth Park on March 28.
But the work schedule of Peter and his wife Helen - proprietors of the Renzo Park Pet Transport Service - based at Stratheden, 15 kilometres north of Casino, makes their lack of Sydney ventures hardly surprising.
While finding time to train 12 greyhounds as well as rearing between 30 and 40 juveniles, Peter chalks up 3,000 to 4,000 kilometres per week, picking up and delivering greyhounds up and down the Pacific Highway between Brisbane and Sydney, with regular detours to "doggie" outer suburbs Leppington and Richmond.
"I usually leave at 2am Saturday, get to Sydney around 1pm, then stop off for a break at Sam Cauchi’s kennels at Calga around 4pm," Peter said.
"I used to sleep in my van but I’m too old for that now so have a permanent room booked in a motel at Gosford where I spend Saturday night."
Peter is likely to be spending more time in Sydney in the coming months as apart from Rush Of Power and Elvee Express, he and Helen’s current team also includes Northern Rivers' stars Glamour Row, Pace Ventura and Wild Roses, who are all prospective Wentworth Park winners.
The SIMPSON greyhound racing association with the NSW Northern Rivers dates back to the mid-1950s when Peter’s parents, Lila and Les SIMPSON, raced the country champion Happy Cappy.
Happy Cappy won 53 of his 105 races on 14 different tracks and became the maternal grandsire of Zoom Top, who is widely considered the sport’s all-time greatest.
"I shudder to think what Happy Cappy would have been worth now both on the track and at stud, because in the 1950s I remember dad telling me the dog often raced for stake money of $10 on local tracks and $40 at Harold Park," Peter commented.
"My first top notcher was Dark And Gloomy, who won 22 of 41 races after being retained by myself and her owner Errol Moss when we were unable to sell her for only $500.
"But now the best Helen and I have had would be Raging Obsession, who is being trained for us in Queensland by Michael Zammit.
"Raging Obsession has won at Ipswich in 30.16, where the record is held by Queen Lauryn at 30.01 and where the great Dashing Corsair took 30.11 to win.
"Last year’s win in the Albion Park Young Guns final by Raging Obsession would be the highlight of our time in the sport, although landing a couple of betting plunges a few years back at Casino were also big thrills.
"We were short of money at the time so those successful plunges meant a lot to us.
"I haven’t had many disappointments but a huge setback came recently when we lost a promising young dog, He’s A Wizard, who had won four of six country races and was going to be a Wentworth Park greyhound for sure.
"He contracted a bacterial infection and his organs shut down so he had to be euthanised.
"My all-time favourite track was TOOWOOMBA. It was the best in Australia, but sadly it has been closed for several years.
"Helen and I have had a lot of success at Casino and while Wentworth Park has some knockers I like the place, the atmosphere is good and the hospitality accorded to us out-of-town visitors there is second-to-none."
Although Peter has been involved with greyhounds throughout his life, he nominates a couple of "modern" stars, Brett Lee and Xylia Allen as the best sprinter and stayer he has seen in action.
While transporting, owning and training greyhounds play a major part in the lives of Peter and Helen SIMPSON, they also find time to breed two litters each year while rearing and whelping youngsters for other breeders.
Rue De Kahn, the 2014 National Futurity winner trained in Sydney by Dean Swain, was reared by the SIMPSONs.
Peter is buoyant about the future of greyhound racing in the Northern Rivers district but believes the region could do with another track.
"Behind our property is a mountain which I reckon is absolutely heaving with greyhounds," Peter said.
"There are between 160 and 170 litters born in our district every year so we are certainly not short of greyhound racing enthusiasts."
