Not too much phases Ken Staines these days, and if he’s honest - and he always comes across that way - it doesn’t take too much to keep him happy.
“If I wake up in the morning … I’m happy,” Ken says in his laconic way.
As I said, Ken calls it as it is. You want sugar coating, head to the cake shop down the road, because you won’t get it from Ken.
Ken has Raven Izmir engaged in the Lismore Regional Final of the GRNSW + Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase tonight. Of course she has a chance. She led throughout to win her heat in 30.18s, off the rails draw, she has won 20 and been placed another 14 times from just 38 starts, she has won 12 of her past 16 starts, and she has five wins from seven starts at Lismore.
“She’s not boxed well out in the six,” said Ken. “But, you’ve got to be in it. You’re halfway there. It’s like waking up in the morning … you’re halfway there. And as I always say, you can’t with the raffle if you haven’t got a ticket.”
Courtesy of that heat win, Ken has a ticket. If Raven Izmir finishes first or second tonight, Ken will get another ticket, this time to the city, for the semi-finals of the series at Wentworth Park on October 12. Win that night and he has one of only eight tickets for a $1 million prize in the grand final.
“Yeah she’s had a good week. She tries hard, but I’ve just got a theory that leaders win finals and the dog drawing the one (Queenslander Snug), she’s a leader and it will be hard to beat her… and Lismore is a bit of a leader’s track. But, if there is any trouble up front, there are a couple of very strong dogs in there, Peter Simpson’s (Jonesy) and Dr George’s (Big Bad Bob trained by Dr George Clegg).”
If Raven Izmir doesn’t get through at Lismore, Ken will consider bringing her to Wentworth Park for the city qualifiers which commence on September 22. Ken, who only has two in work at the moment, is also toying with the idea of taking her kennelmate, Freddy’s Back, to Grafton for their regional qualifying series which gets underway there on September 17.
While he only has a pair of dogs in work at present, they have been a part of his life for more than 50 years.
His father Fred was a shearer and mother Margaret, a cook in the shearing sheds, and they always used to have a greyhound or two to supplement their income, racing at tracks around the NSW bush.
But for Ken the true love affair started back in 1962, when he was “smuggled into Harold Park” to watch the legendary Black Top race.
“Kids weren’t allowed into the dogs back in those days. Kids weren’t allowed anywhere near betting,” Ken recalled.
“When Black Top won the Bi-Annual Classic at Harold Park, I was only about 13 or 14, but my dad smuggled me in. That atmosphere and that dog … it was an amazing night. My dad had a dog in that night, and it was a big thing to bring one from the country to race at Harold Park. In those days we lived out at Condobolin and it was a six-hour drive back then.”
Ken says there are plenty of good memories from the game across all those years. He singled out a dog called Freddy’s Dynasty who they named after his father, who “was one of the top stayers in his day”.
“I’ve just been blessed to along the way have had some good dogs … city winners. And I’ve enjoyed it.
“I’ve been up here (at Waterview Heights near Grafton) for two and half years. I came here to retire and give up fulltime training. I’ll always have a dog in the kennel though, at least one to walk. It keeps you young walking the dogs. I’m 70 this year, and like I said, if I wake up in the morning … I’m happy.”
