Lacey Lois and My Asuncion, whose recent string of wins and placings at Wentworth Park have taken their earnings beyond $50,000, are the latest in an endless stream of talented Adele Powell-owned and trained greyhounds descended from Pumpkin, a giveaway bitch.
Powell, who began assisting her late father George with his greyhounds when she was seven-years-old, received this four-legged goldmine courtesy of the late Les Castle,
He trained 1985 group one Vic Peters Classic winner Daisy Doll.
“Les was at Moss Vale kennelling a bitch called Pumpkin who was so mischievous, grabbing the registration papers out of his pocket with her mouth and generally just wanting to play all the time,’’ Powell recalled.
“I remarked how gorgeous she was and Les said he was tired of her antics and that if she got beaten that day he would give her to me.
“She got beaten and he advised me to breed from her but I persuaded him to take a third of any prizemoney Pumpkin earned and she won a couple of races.
“But as a brood bitch she founded a never-ending line of winners beginning when I mated her with Warren’s Flyer, whose owner Peter Dobson was my next door neighbour at Catherine Field.
“The mating produced an outstanding litter including Outrageous Alice, who became the grand-dam of Mick Patterson’s champion stayer He Knows Uno.
“My dad had been like a second father to Mick when we lived at Lakemba while Mick’s mum Cathy used to babysit me after school.
“Before Mick had greyhounds he went with dad and I to the Cootamundra track when I trained my first winner, a Gala’s Dream bitch called Gala Frandel, on December 8, 1972.
“When I mated Outrageous Alice to Proper Tears, she whelped Outrageous Angel, who in 2002 won the Wentworth Park Gold Cup and Wentworth Park Super Stayers Challenge.
“When she retired, Outrageous Angel was mated with Go Wild Teddy and produced Outrageous Claim, who had brilliant early speed and made two group race finals.
“Then Outrageous Claim went on to become the mother of Naughty Nicki whose first litter, whelped in December, 2011, to Superman, have won 51 races.
“They include Tony Brett’s top notcher Exhibitionist, Lacey Lois, Abbreviate, Total Blonde, Unbound who has won 10 in Victoria, and Super’s Son and Anthony’s Boy, which I sold as pups for $1500 each to Frank Daros.
“Between them Anthony’s Boy and Super’s Son, who unfortunately has just broken a hock, have won 14 out of 38 starts.
“Outrageous Angel was the dam of two of my most successful greyhounds, On Parole, who was runner-up in the Dapto Maiden Classic and in the Nowra Puppy Classic, and the top class stayer Just Friends.
“I eventually sent Just Friends to Melbourne trainer Kel Greenough because I could not get enough long-distance races here for her.
“At her first trial for Kel, over 525 metres at The Meadows, Just Friends broke Brett Lee’s record but before Kel could phone me people at the trials had called to tell me about the record time.
"That’s the dog game for you!
“Just Friends went on to win two of Victoria’s biggest staying races, the Sandown Lizrene and the Gleeson & Tonta finals, but she was not the fastest greyhound I have owned.
“That was Here Comes Kenny, who only won about eight races but won in near record times at Dapto and Warragul before breaking a hock twice, then breaking the other hock.
“He is now a five-year-old pet at my place, along with another nine ‘pensioners’ while I have six racers in training.’’
Powell had Outrageous Angel cremated when she died of old age.
“She is sitting in a box here at home," Powell said.
Adele met her partner Peter Acers through greyhounds after he asked her if she could sell him a decent greyhound.
“Peter had raced a good dog called Run Aglow and I told him I had nothing of that class," Powell said. “But Denis Barnes was breaking in a bitch for me.
"When he said she had trialled 19.10 at his Cudal track and that she had a big future I agreed to sell Peter a half share in her.
“That pup turned out to be Just Friends and because of the association of Peter and myself, that’s how she got her name!’’
Adele, who names Brett Lee as the best greyhound she has seen and Wentworth Park and Dapto as her favourite tracks, breeds “one or two litters’’ each year but because she has so many quality bitches she has begun leasing some out.
