Mr Bondfire is a greyhound who makes his feelings known – but he keeps giving his connections plenty to shout about too.
The durable old stager (pictured with trainer Gary Keep, courtesy Lisa Vanderstok) will have a remarkable 138th career outing when he starts from box two in Friday’s Unibet Stayers Stakes (620m).
He may be a veteran but he is still capable of winning, as his impressive triumph over the distance last Friday at the Northern Rivers track showed.
Queensland trainer Keep said his charge always let him know he was around – but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“He would make a great watch dog,” Keep said. “He barks at everything.
“He wouldn’t stop barking, so I brought him to the house and trained him from the garage.
“His owners bought him for $3,000 and he has made them $30,000.”
Mr Bondfire only racked up one win in his first 21 outings but he matured into a reliable stayer for Keep.
Last week’s win at Casino was his 12th, with another 46 placings to his name.
“He is a good honest chaser,” Keep said. “He will chase cars driving up to the house here.
“He just loves to run.
“He is a big dog (and) the only problem is he dehydrates easily. The earlier the race, the better his chances.
“He handles the Casino track beautifully. He seems to almost push the other dogs out of his way.”
Keep, who works out of Burpengary, said he was proud to have a greyhound enjoying such a long career.
“It means you must be doing something right to keep their interest up,” he said.
“I can put him in a big paddock where he can free gallop, in a 250m straight or in 25m runs with other dogs. He has three different training runs.
“I think that’s the key to keeping dogs going a long time – varying their training regimes.”
It promises to be an unpredictable race, with little separating all eight greyhounds.
Bogan Girl (box three) has been a consistent recent performer, while fellow veteran campaigner Nintendo Bones (box four) has won four of his last six and is also a threat.
The race is the eighth of ten on the card at Casino, with action under way at 12.42pm.
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