GRAHAM HOLLAND We are primarily a track kennel but we have enjoyed our winters with the occasional coursing runner. The highlight of our coursing career was Ballinakill Mary’s win in an Oaks trialstake at Sevenhouses.
My son Timmy trained her himself and she was a cracking bitch. A lot of coursing dogs are very laid back, and contrary to popular belief, are very soft. A lot of them would make good pets. Mary was different, she had a real instinct to chase. She got as far as the second day at Powerstown but had the hare turn the wrong way and she ended up in a grueller. She came off the field and went to the vets to prevent her dehydrating. I was gutted for Timmy, but a wayward hare is just one of the many obstacles that you have to overcome on the coursing field.
PAT ROSNEY Vatican Jinky remains in my memory as one of the best dogs we have ever had in the kennel. He won his first seven-races for us and was a real world beater. He ran third in the Puppy Classic and was beaten a short head in the Northern Puppy Derby after looking like he had the race in the bag turning the back straight.
I gave him a preparatory trial for the Scottish Derby in November and he did 28.80 at Shawfield. He then broke 17.70 for the sprint at Nottingham in a trial. I led him off the track and wasn’t concentrating when the next trial was run. Jinky was a bit hyper, jumped and twisted in the air and yelped when he landed.
Vatican Jinky
It was a nightmare from then on. He was off for months and I couldn’t get him sound. He was trialling half a second behind him form in sprint trials and I despaired that we would never win another race with him.
Finally, in desperation, I took him to physio George Drake; it was the first time I had ever used him. George diagnosed trapped nerves in the dog’s back and treated him.
He had been off six months and I asked George how long should I leave it until he would be ready to re-trial. He said: ‘I’d leave it a couple of days’. I couldn’t believe it but I trialled the dog four days later and he absolutely took off.
We entered him in the Gold Collar at Belle Vue and after the semi final run he came off the track very very tired and the local ‘experts’ were confidently predicting that he wouldn’t even go to traps for the final.
So I took great satisfaction when he came out and won the final by nearly five lengths in a new track record. He was owned by Robert Ferrari who has been an incredibly loyal owner and friend to us, and it meant the world to win this race for him.
MARK WALLIS After we moved to Newmarket in 1988 Another Mixture had sired a litter and two of them came to a local handler Don Andrews to run at Swaffham/ Mildenhall. One of them Lonely Mixture looked open class but Don wasn’t keen on travelling too far and said we should look for another trainer if we wanted to go on the open race circuit.
At the time my dad and I were very friendly with a local garage owner Alan Carter who famously owned the Derby winner Slippy Blue in 1990. He said there was an ambitious lady trainer just starting up at Lakenheath called Linda Jones and we should give her a call.
She agreed to take the two dogs and I picked them up and took them over to the kennels. She was so welcoming and before I knew it I was coming over to the kennels on a regular basis to help out, the rest is history as they say!, Linda loved the dark brindle dog Lonely Mixture and the pair jelled together. He took off in a few races at Swaffham and Henlow and Linda decided to take him for the big William Hill sprint competition at Bristol. It was a long drive that’s for sure!
After qualifying for the final, Linda was so confident he could win her first major trophy. He came out the traps like he was on an elastic band and bolted in for the £5,000 first prize; prompting many people to say ‘who’s this Linda Jones’. it was a magnificent day and needless to say the journey home seemed a lot shorter!
