Bush trainer Margaret Bannerman drives up to 150,000km a year in her bid to win races so it’s no surprise she has a soft spot for the greyhound which enabled her to pay off her first car.
“As a teenager one of the first winners I trained was My Daddy Said, who won on the old Wollongong track at 33/1 ($34),’’ Bannerman said.
“I won enough money that night to pay off my car so while I can’t remember my first winner, or even my first city winner, I’ll never forget My Daddy Said.’’
Margaret, 53, grew up around greyhounds with both her grandfather and her father, JOCK Taylor, being owners and trainers.
“JOCK was a truck driver so from the age of eight I had to take his greyhounds for a walk before and after primary school,’’ says Margret.
“We were living at Dapto and in his spare time dad operated the catching pen gate at the local track for 25 years.
“When I was 12 I was handed a giveaway greyhound and began training and while that dog was ‘legless’ and didn’t win a race, I learned a lot.
“I also received good advice from Jack Irwin, Denis Robinson, Jimmy Coleman and Kevin Lewry.
“Kevin and his son Laurie won the 1967 National Sprint Championship with Meteor Paso and I used to help them with their dogs.
“While trialling at Dapto my father and I got to know the late Allen Wheeler and his son Paul, and 37 years later I am still friends with Paul, who has given me many greyhounds to train.
“One of the first was Lehman Bale, who could not run 520 metres but this Head Honcho-Luana Bale dog won 39 short course races for me around the bush.
“The longest race he won was over 453 metres at Cowra but it was a good one because it was a heat of the Cowra Cup and Lehman Bale defeated Mean Bean, Mark Bell’s 2001 National Derby winner.
“I had better luck with my second giveaway, Love’s Blind, which I got from Queensland owner CHRIStine Pollard, whose dog Miner’s Arms was top class for leading trainer Paul Cauchi.
“Love’s Blind won her first four starts for me and because of that CHRIStine Pollard sent me a smart dog named Great Mikado to train.
“Other good dogs I’ve had include Victor Lane, who won 20 races and Felicity Lane, a handy stayer who won a dozen races including three long-distance events at Wentworth Park in 2008 and 2009.
“Unfortunately Felicity Lane was racing against many top class stayers so she often had to play second fiddle to Anthony Azzopardi’s Lilley Criminal and CHRIS Nutt’s Princess Bale.
“The Paul Wheeler-bred Brencole Bale won 26 races for me and another of Paul’s greyhounds, Pindari Bale, who won 18 races, gave me my biggest win when she won the 2010 Country Championship final at Wentworth Park.’’
While Margaret is modest about her success she is remarkable in that most of her greyhounds have long careers, with many chalking up over 100 starts.
And while most women trainers become involved through their husbands, Sean Bannerman “knew nothing’’ about greyhounds until he met Margaret.
“Sean and I were postal clerks at Strathfield in the early 1990s before moving to Bundaberg where I secured a job at the greyhound track,’’ she said.
“There I started training greyhounds again before we moved to Ulladulla and finally, 22 years ago, to Reefton, where we are on four acres and breed an occasional litter.
“I can only race at two or three meetings a week because Sean is a train programmer at Junee and we have a daughter with special needs so I have to arrange my racing around my husband’s roster and our daughter’s requirements.
“But I regularly race at Canberra, Bathurst, Temora, Wagga, Richmond, and recently frequent 10 hours round trips to Wentworth Park.’’
Margaret and Sean have 15 in work with the star of the team Usaine, who led practically all the way to win at Wentworth Park last Saturday night in a slick 29.98.
“That was special because I bred and reared Usaine before selling him as a pup to Sue and Garry Thorncraft and their son Darryl, who I met when he operated the catching pen gate on the old ORANGE track, still my all-time favourite course,’’ Bannerman said.
“The Thorncraft family owned Lolo Jones, which was trained by Carolyn Hore, and Lynn Maney’s Miss Bowie, but Usaine is their first greyhound to break 30 seconds at Wentworth Park.
"They were thrilled when he won on Saturday.’’
