Last week was a big one for young rookie trainers with Joshua Board, a third generation member of a famous greyhound racing family, landing a winner with his first starter at Goulburn on Friday.
Board's success with Spring Meteor in a 350m maiden came just 48 hours after 20-year-old Jacob Betar won at Richmond with Gourmet Love, his first ever entry.
Joshua Board, 21, is the son of Scott Board, who made Goulburn a family affair by winning the 450m Maiden Final with Spring Patriot.
Because Joshua is an apprentice builder and could not get to Goulburn, his dog was handled by another family member, Scott's 18-year-old nephew Jay Opetaia, an apprentice plumber.
Scott and Joshua Board train their team on five acres at Spring Hill, near ORANGE, which is a couple of minutes from another greyhound "nursery" Spring Terrace.
The highly successful Kirby family train at Spring Terrace which was put on the greyhound map through being the breeding, rearing and training base for the late Joe and Leo Kelly.
The Kellys raced 1959 Harold Park Bi-Annual Classic winner Tell You Why, who became one of the leading stud dogs in the United States, along with crack Wenty sprinter Main Issue, from the eastern suburbs kennels of the late Jimmy Taylor.
Scott Board said: "Spring Patriot, who turns two in February, is out of Spring Leaf, who won 17 races for us, and Josh's winner Spring Meteor is a grandson of Spring Leaf.
"Both Spring Meteor and Spring Patriot are nice dogs and Josh is also training another seven members of Spring Meteor's litter.''
In 2017 Scott's parents Greg and Helen moved from Spring Hill to Murray Bridge, SA, where he has won several owners' premierships and been regularly among the 10 leading trainers.
As an owner in NSW Greg Board raced Spring Secret, winner of the 2004 Richmond Derby and Bulli Gold Plate, and placegetter in the 2004 Golden Easter Egg and 2003 Melbourne Cup and Topgun.
The recently retired Christine Oldfield trained for Board and she took out the 2011 group 1 Vic Peters Classic with another of his dogs, Spring Gun, who later became a leading stud dog.
That's My Guy, the nephew of Wenty warrior Sunburnt Highway, made a dashing debut at Dapto last Thursday, leading all the way in a 520m maiden and clocking a slick 30.12.
That's My Guy is a son of Sunburnt Opal, who won 13 races and is a sister to Judith and John Richardson's cult hero Sunburnt Highway, who has registered 42 wins.
John Richardson has been telling me for months how good Rex (kennel name of That's My Guy) is going to be, and the youngster did the Richardsons proud at Dapto.
But Judith Richardson said Sunburnt Opal has been a "difficult'' mother and may not be bred from again.
"When she was in pup with That's My Guy and his siblings Sunburnt Opal refused to eat and I had to hand-feed her for the entire 63 days of her pregnancy,'' Judith said.
"Then after the pups were born she would not return to the outside whelping box and we had to move them into a spare bedroom.
"I had virtually no sleep for six weeks and I'm too old to go through all that again and as John has recently recovered from a heart attack so Sunburnt Opal looks like remaining a family pet.''
Typhoon Sammy, raced by the NSW Northern Rivers Dart family, smashed Australian Greyhound of the Year Shima Shine's Bendigo 425m record on Saturday night.
Now trained by Jason Thompson in Victoria, Typhoon Sammy scored his 16th win in 23 starts with a 23.28 performance, .07sec quicker than Shima Shine recorded in June, 2020.
"I knew how good he was but felt there were more opportunities for Typhoon Sammy in Victoria than up here in the Northern Rivers so sent him to Jason in the belief that he might be able to turn him into a future stud dog,'' former trainer John Dart said.
