The well-bred Myall Hiker is helping to keep octogenarian greyhound racing participants Ray Gilmore and Judith Risk amused while they rear a couple of litters at Kilmany in eastern Victoria.
Myall Hiker, who is unbeaten in two starts at Tara Raceway, overcame a slow start in last Sunday’s Williams Crane Hire Stake (512 m), the second heat of a grade six series. Then, after finding the front down the back, he held out Bungaloo Danni to win by a half length in 30.07 seconds.
By Fernando Bale, Myall Hiker is out of city-winning stayer Never Duplicated, a daughter of US sire KC And All and Sweet It Is who won 23 races and $945,000 in stakemoney.
“With a view to having something to race while we waited for the pups, we purchased Myall Hiker late last year,” Risk said. “He had won at Healesville and Warragul for us but was becoming more than we could handle. So a friend of ours who has a dog with Tracie suggested we give him a try.”
Ray Gilmore and Judith Risk certainly have a story to tell.
Gilmore, training greyhounds since he was 12 years old and having now trained more than 2000 winners including feature races with dogs such as Friendly World, Ringland Lass and 2011 Warrnambool Classic winner Compacto.
And Risk, a one-time District Nurse who bred her first litter after one of her patients gave her a greyhound. “One good brood bitch is all you need.”
Incidentally, the pups currently being reared are two litters out of Spot On Cinta – a daughter of the Group 1-winning Cintiarna – by Orson Allen and Beast Unleashed.
“There’s nothing like a couple of litters of pups to keep you going,” says Risk.