Husband-and-wife training team Jarrod and Tracey Bruce are among the most successful trainers in the Hunter Valley but that is no surprise given that Jarrod, now 43, trained his first winner as a ten-year-old!
Yet Jarrod’s mother Sylvia was a thoroughbred racing fan and was the cousin of champion jockey Kevin Langby, who rode over 2000 winners and won four Sydney jockeys’ premierships.
But it was Jarrod’s uncle Cliff Crump, a successful trainer at ORANGE, where the Bruce family lived, who swayed his young nephew towards the greyhounds.
“When I was 10 I kept pestering mum and my dad Reg to get me a greyhound and finally uncle Cliff handed over Only Dreaming, one of his cast-offs,’’ Jarrod recalled.
“Only Dreaming, who was by Bob Doak’s great dog Dusty Rapid, used to annoy Cliff because after a race he would jump the fence and run across the infield.
“But at his first start for me, at Bathurst, Only Dreaming beat one of Cliff’s dogs and my uncle was not too impressed.
“That win remains the biggest thrill I’ve had in the sport, because I was ten years old and did it all myself, as while Only Dreaming had to race in my mother’s name I was the genuine trainer.
“I would bounce out of bed at 5.30 to walk Only Dreaming four miles every morning before I went to school.
"In the middle of winter in ORANGE it was freezing cold."
From those beginnings, Jarrod became hooked on the sport.
“As I got older I received advice on greyhounds from outstanding local trainers like Rob Sharp, George Stewart, John Fitzgerald, Neville Prestwidge and Bob Littlefield, whose dog Royal Riddle became the 2006 NSW Greyhound of the Year," he said.
“Another good ORANGE trainer Les Whitton gave me my first city winner when he let me train Jomajeda, who won 15 races for me and scored on the old grass surface at Wentworth Park.
“Other good dogs I trained at ORANGE were Sugar Shack and Colonial Kid and when the family moved to Molong I learned a lot from trainer Frank Bartolo, who schooled me on the art of checking dogs for injuries as well as instilling in me the need to be patient about conditioning greyhounds.
“Twenty years ago I moved to Londonderry and while playing cricket there I met and married Tracey, whose uncle, Tom Roberts, had been a greyhound trainer back in ORANGE.
“At Londonderry we had good success with dogs like Black Beast and Viddles while since moving to Branxton 11 years back our best have been Navada Sunrise and Cawbourne Havoc.’’
Navada Sunrise’s 22 wins included 14 at Wentworth Park while Cawbourne Havoc, originally trained by Jodie Lord, won three successive races at Wentworth Park in February 2014 for the Bruces, before smashing the Gosford 400m record for them in October.
While Jarrod Bruce is now full-time training 10 greyhounds and rearing seven puppies on the family’s 5ha property at Branxton, wife Tracey is a primary school teacher.
And Jarrod has not always been a professional greyhound man.
“I was the course broadcaster at the old Wade Park greyhound track at ORANGE while I also called the dogs at Bathurst, FORBES, MUDGEE, Cowra and Goulburn,’’ Jarrod recalled.
“I even did a stint on radio and hosted a midnight to dawn programme for the local radio station at ORANGE.
“Among the greyhounds Tracey and I are currently training are Cawbourne Havoc, Cawbourne Power, Gotta Plan and a very smart dog called Old Mexico, who was flying until he dropped a back muscle but is on the way back.
“Best track I have seen is Sandown but my favourite is Wentworth Park because that is where the money is.
“Fastest dog I’ve seen was Brett Lee but my favourite was National Lee, who broke the Harold Park 732m record for Jill Harper, while I also had a soft spot for Kevin Johns’ sprinter The Ringer and Bob Littlefield’s great stayer Narara City.’’
