There are few trainers enjoying a purple patch of form at the moment like Young locals Graham Sheather and Angela Della Bosca.
22 winners for the year so far from just 53 starts. Eight victories from their last 15 runners. And the husband-and-wife duo currently sit third in the Goulburn Trainer’s Premiership behind the mighty kennels of Neil Staines and JODIE and Andy Lord.
So what’s their secret?
“Hard bloody work”, Sheather laughs.
“Plus, we’ve got some good dogs at the moment. The whole team has been flying lately. Leg Press came over from Western Australia and has won nine races for us. We bred Balmoral Queen who is going well. And we’ve got a nice litter on the ground by Aussie Infrared.”
That litter, out of Nikolina - which includes the likes of Peloponnese (three wins), Delvene and Ozzie Nick (both two wins) - has already claimed nine races from 24 career outings.
With brother, Scatter Dunn, making his chasing debut in heat 3 of the $25,000 Ladbrokes Zoom Top Maiden on Friday.
“Scatter Dunn is owned by Will Dunn, he’s a young bloke who is keen as mustard. This is his second greyhound but he’s yet to have a winner,” Sheather added.
“Sadly, his father, Ian Dunn, died not long after he bought this bloke. His old man’s nickname was ‘Scatter’ so that’s how Will came up with Scatter-dunn">Scatter Dunn.”
“He can run 24.80 but he’s probably not quick enough for the better dogs that have been trialling up for this series. He’s only a baby but he’s a nice dog and I think the further he goes, the better he’ll be. I can’t wait to get him out over 500.”
“Two weeks ago he trialled up against Leg Press at Goulburn and she beat him by 1.5 lengths, then she came out and nearly broke the track record at Temora yesterday so that form looks good.”
Sheather and Della Bosca enjoying one of their more fruitful periods on the race track as they continue to strengthen their partnership off it.
“Our operation is no different to so many others…if you don’t have someone to help you out in this game, you’re going to be up shit creek,” he said.
“Ange is up at 6am every morning with me and then goes off to work as a slow learning officer at the young primary school. Then she gets home from school and she’s straight back into the dogs. She just loves them. She’s such a hard worker and I’d be stuffed without her.”
Graham Sheather and Angela Della Bosca with Peloponnese and connections
“We’ve been married nine years but I still remember one of the first things she said when we met. It was “I want to learn how to trap the dogs”. That’s the English expression for catching them at the end of races. Lucky enough Peter Sims was breaking in about 30 dogs at a time back then so I’d go up the track to help him and Ange came with me and learned the game quick smart and she’s never looked back.”
The 58-year-old hitting the track on Friday hopeful of winning his first big major since the 2010 Ladbrokes Magic Maiden with Humdrum.
“Jack Roy was my mentor at the time and he trained Humdrum as I didn’t have the kennels to do it,” Sheather added.
“He was out of Molly’s Osti and I bought him off the legendary Teddy Doss. I was going to call him Meldrum after Molly but they wouldn’t let me so we knew he had a segment on countdown called ‘Humdrum’ and that’s where we landed.”
The 2024 Ladbrokes Zoom Top Maiden heats will be run on Friday, July 29. The top two from each heat will advance to the $25,000 final on Friday, August 2.
