John Miles is a self-confessed optimist. You would imagine however that his achievement at Richmond on Friday would have exceeded even his expectations. It didn’t.
John had three runners in the Kevin Waters Towing Richmond Cannonball heats at Richmond, one in each heat. All three won their heats.
But wait there is more.
John’s partner, Susan Smith had her speedster Morse engaged in the heats, and it finished second to one of John’s and also booked a berth in next Friday’s $5,000 to the winner final. That’s right they will have half the field between them.
“It was a wonderful result. Very fulfilling,” John said the morning after. “I’m a bit of an optimist. I knew it could happen and I had high expectations.”
John confirmed that the fastest heat winner, Laurie’s Flyer was the most impressive of his trio, and that the dog continues to improve.
Laurie’s Flyer has now won 11 of 15 starts and gave nothing else a chance in winning by 6½ lengths over Morse in the best of the night time of 22.58s.
His 22-month old litter sister Blue Bronte clocked 22,72s winning her seventh event from nine starts, while their older half brother Sliced Bread clocked 22.65s, also leading throughout. All three are out of John’s former star shortcourse sprinter, Blue Thunda.
Blue Thunda won 17 of her first 19 starts, and finished her career with 18 wins from 23 starts, after shattering a hock.
Sliced Bread is from her first litter to Magic Sprite while Laurie’s Flyer and Blue Bronte are from the mating of Fernando Bale and Blue Thunda. John bred and reared all three.
“They are all going well. We didn’t have a long term target of this race, they have been going through their grades quickly and this race came up on the calendar so we brought them down for it,” John said.
A little later this month John will celebrate his 78th birthday, and the year 2020 will see John rack up 50 years in greyhound racing as a trainer.
He’s seen a lot in those years in the sport, but even before he got into training, he saw the one most consider the greatest ever, Zoom Top, race in the late 1960s.
He met and spoke with Zoom Top’s trainer Hec Watt, who passed on what he did with the champion every race day.
“On the morning of her races, he would give Zoom Top a lukewarm hydrobath,” John said.
He took it on board and when he started training he too gave his dogs a lukewarm bath on race day. Asked if he still followed the mantra, John said; “Yep. That’s our secret. It works.“
Asked to pick a personal highlight of those 50 years, John headed north and a race which used to be a feature on the racing calendar, the Tweed Heads Galaxy.
“I always wanted to win the race. I had a bitch called Tommie’s Placard who ran second in the Tweed Heads Galaxy and I then ended up winning it with one of her sons, Chasing Glory.”
While he was optimistic about his prospects in the heats, John is a little more reserved about the final.
“It was great to win all three heats, but in finals, you need a good draw and luck,” John said. “Hopefully we can get some of that.”
