Stuart Hazlett's Wild Hunch almost pulled off an upset win in the 1988 Adelaide Cup and the 77-year-old Sydney trainer is hoping Has Ability, the best greyhound he has since trained, can upset the favourites in Friday night's Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase at Wentworth Park.
Wlid Hunch was a $9 outsider when he was runner-up to hot favourite, the South Austalian dog High Wonder, in the Angle Park final 35 years ago.
Has Ability defied the odds to win his Wentworth Park qualifier of the Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase from box seven at $8.50 prospect before running down Victorian stars Dundee Smokey and Umberto to win his semi-final last Friday when sent out as a $7.50 chance.
"Has Ability pulled up a treat so now it's up to him,'' Hazlett said.
"Wild Hunch was probably my best until this fellow came along although Bourbon Express, who won five at Wenty, was a fast animal while the most frustrating was August Night.
"He won his maiden at MOSS VALE by 25 lengths in near record time but then began to turn his head in his races, he decided he just wanted to play with the other dogs.''
Has Ability after his Semi-Final win on Friday night
Stuart Hazlett has trained greyhounds for 60 years and hit the ground running when Neat Fawn, his first race dog, equalled the track record winning his maiden race up the old WYONG straight track.
Hazlett raced Neat Fawn in partnership with renowned breeder George "Sonny" Gram, who had bred the Wentworth Park record holder Sunview and that dog's litter brother Rookie Rebel, now immortalised with an annual group one race at The Meadows named in his honour.
George Gram had been the leading jockey in China but with wife Mildred fled the country when the democracy was taken over by Communists in 1949 and horse racing was banned.
George Gram had been the number one jockey for Sir Victor Sassoon, whose company is credited with transforming the skyline of Shanghai and who later owned English Derby winners Pinza (1953), Crepello (1957), Hard Ridden (1958) and St Paddy (1960).
Arriving in Australia, the Grams soon established a greyhound breeding and spelling farm at Ingleburn and it was there that Stuart Hazlett's passion for the sport was born.
"My parents owned a poultry farm 300m from George and Mildred's property and as a kid I used to ride my pony to school and every day jogged past the Grams' greyhound establishment,'' Hazlett recalled.
"Most days I would jump off the horse to study these fascinating dogs called greyhounds,'' Hazlett recalled.
"Sonny and Mildred, who later raced the 1981 National Derby winner Handicap, were wonderful people and when they noticed me staring at their greyhounds they invited me in to have a closer look.
"When I was 16 they gave me their race-winning stayer Bright Mariette to breed from and she became the grand-dam of a top notcher called Gaytilla.
"A couple of years later I bought my first race dog, Neat Fawn, and Sonny and I raced him in partnership with me being totally hooked on the sport when he won his maiden race in equal track record time up the straight at WYONG.''
Has Abilty's owner Andrew Fenech, a long-time client of Hazlett's kennels, paid $7500 for the son of Fernando Bale and Bikini Cloud after selecting him from a litter of three-month-old puppies, believing the youngster looked "keener" than his siblings.
Andrew Fenech cheers home Has Ability in Friday's Semi-Final win
