Caption: Adam Mcintosh, Elisheba, and ‘Team Mcintosh’ after victory in the Group 3 Vince Curry Maiden at Ipswich (Photo: Just Greyhound Photos)

Each month Chase puts the spotlight on a person and/or their ‘best friend’ – a story that gives an insight into the true heart of greyhound racing. It showcases all that is good in this sport and is a monthly tribute to much-loved greyhound identity Daryl ‘Albert’ Gleeson.

By DAVID BRASCH

JUST two days after Bray Park (Brisbane) trainer Adam Mcintosh had the biggest three days of his greyhound training career, the reality of life struck him.

On the Thursday night before, Adam had trained his own dog Inner Tea Cup to win the Listed Golden Oldies at Albion Park, then backed up on the Saturday night to train favourite Elisheba to win the time-honoured Group 3 Vince Curry Maiden at Ipswich.

It was a $105,000 pay day, something Adam questioned at times would ever have been possible.

“But, by Monday lunchtime, I was back at work plastering and eating an egg sandwich and washing it down with a bottle of water,” said Adam.

“It is the reality of life.”

Adam, 51 in May, grew up in greyhound country out at Pine Rivers, not far from the Lawnton Showgrounds where greyhound racing held centre stage for decades.

“Mates and I would go to the dogs on a Monday night,” said Adam. “I was 15 at the time.”

It wasn’t long before he got involved.

“My nanna lived next door to Ken Snedden who trained a dog or two,” he said. “Some bloke dropped off a Swagman bitch for Ken but he wasn’t home, so I took it and tied it up in the laundry.”

Adam and Ken became friends. Adam started helping out.

“I walked around Marchant Park one and a half times every single night with that bitch of Ken’s,” he said. “I know every single blade of grass on Marchant Park.”

The bitch landed her maiden win at Beenleigh at 10-1. Adam was on.

“I was working by the time and earning $120 a week,” he said. “I had $100 on her at 10-1.”

Hooked by this time, Adam got himself a broodbitch and bred a litter.

“It was certainly not the right thing to do and I was not set up at all for that sort of thing.”

But, greyhounds had got into Adam’s DNA.

“I became friendly with Angela Modra over in South Australia,” he said. “She became like a second mum to me. She bought one of that litter I bred and named her Mee Lin and she won a lot of races in Adelaide.”

He also linked up with Len Catalano who, at the time, was winning everything with his classy galloper Bennetton.

“Len had a dog for me called Sweeping Sunset and it had nine starts at the Gabba for four wins, two seconds and a third.”

By the time he was 20, Adam would spend six months at home working as a plasterer, and the other six in Adelaide with Angela fixated on greyhounds.

“I did that for a couple of years, but soon realised I had no direction in life,” he admits.

From 1997 until 2010, Adam built up his business, built up a family and resisted the urge to get back into greyhound racing.

“My mate Scott Gould was a cabinet maker and he asked me to give him a hand doing some renovations out at Ron Ball’s property at Ebenezer,” said Adam.

“Scott had a dog or two with Ronny and Serena. I agreed to do the work on one condition, that I would not have to go anywhere near the kennel block.”

Adam had a few bucks saved at the time.

“I was a mad Kiss fan and spotted a Kiss pinball machine for sale,” he said. “I thought it would be a great investment.

“Two days after Scott and I finished the work at Ronny’s, he rang me. Bruce Wood had a couple of pups for sale and Ronny suggested I buy them.

“I did.”

Bruce Wood, 13 years later, would be the owner of Elisheba who Adam, trained to win the Vince Curry Maiden.

“Those pups were legless,” Adam lamented. “In fact, Ronny never trained a winner for me.

“But, I would go there often, helping him work the dogs, trial and just lend a hand. It got me going into dogs all over again. I was in awe of Ron Ball.

“I have never seen anyone so particular when dealing with his dogs.

“But, he was also so, so helpful to me when I was starting out again.”

The first dog Adam got that ‘could run’ was a Knocka Norris-Fie Fie pup he would name Tru Ryder. It would win four races including a maiden at Albion Park on a Monday night and a Bundaberg Young Guns.

By this time he and his family were living across the road from legend dog man Syd Norris after who Knocka Norris was named.

“Syd and I would go to the Lawnton trial track every second day and gallop my dogs,” said Adam. “For nine years we did that. I can still see Syd shaking his head at me. But we became great friends.”

Adam has embraced greyhound racing worldwide.

He made two trips to Ireland for the live hare coursing in 2015 and went back again a year later, trips organised by greyhound devotee Graham Lunney.

“The first year we went with Paul and Jan Wheeler, Les and Sandy Bein. The second trip was with Tony Apap, Sam Sultana, Johnny Galea, the Daillys and the Wheelers again,” he said.

“I stayed great friends with Paul and whenever he came to Queensland we would always catch up for a lunch or just a visit.”

It was also about the time he got Cincinnati Juice (Made To Size-Tina’s Show). She would take him on a wild ride.

She would win nine of 26 including a heat of the Vic Peters at Wenty and started off by winning a heat of the Vince Curry Maiden.

“Her win in that Vic Peters heat was one of the best you will ever see,” said Adam.

And, the bitch also gave Adam and his family a deposit on their home at Bray Park.

“I backed her and in doubles with Amy Lyndan at Albion Park one night,” he said. “We were renting the house across the road from Syd and I got the mail the owner was planning to sell.

“We won $7500 on that double and it was the deposit for our home.”

At stud, Cincinnati Juice would have a litter by Barcia Bale. The dogs could all fly, but all of them had “stopper dramas”.

Her next litter, to Dyna Villa, were entirely different.

One day after Cincinnati Juice whelped her litter in June 2019, she died of a ruptured uterus.

It devastated the Mcintosh family. Adam’s wife Gail and their 14-year-old daughter Immogyn got to and became mums to those pups.

“We tried everything to find a surrogate mother for the pups, and so many friends of ours tried to do the same,” said Adam. “But we couldn’t.”

It was left to Gail and Immogyn to carry them through.

“Every two hours they got up to bottle feed those pups,” said Adam. “Both girls shared turns doing it.

“We got them through.”

Among them is Inner Tea Cup, winner of the Golden Oldies, but also Pixie My Love who landed a Young Guns heat at Albion Park at 100-1.

Inner Tea Cup is a story on her own.

Adam thought she needed a move to South Australia to help her career, but the bitch had other ideas. She would not settle there.

He bought her home to be a house pet, but she eventually had other ideas, went back into work and became a Listed Golden Oldies winner.

Adam had three for that Golden Oldies, Golden Joy and Maddison as well as ‘Tea Cup’. “We thought Tea Cup was the least of the three chances,” he admitted.

Bruce Wood came back into Adam’s life a year or so ago by sending him Elisheba, a daughter of My Redeemer and the sensational broodbitch Lilly Sur Seine.

Tender feet forced Adam to spend month after month after month getting her right.

It was the making of her and the result is a Vince Curry winner, the first Group finalist for Adam and a winner.

“If I was to change anything in my life, this would not have happened,” he admits.

“If the Lawnton slipping track was not there, I would not be in dogs, he admits.

“If it wasn’t for people like Ronny Ball, Tony Apap and Jason Mackay, I would not be in dogs,” he admits.

Adam says the advice he has received from all three has been invaluable. He calls Apap ‘Gee Gee’ or ‘The Gatton Guru’.

“You’ve got to pick all their brains,” he said. “They don’t mind you asking. But, I have never been in this to waste people’s time.

“You have got to listen to what they say. Or, why ask in the first place.”

For the first few days after the Golden Oldies and Vince Curry wins, the well wishers came thick and fast.

By the following Monday as he battled through a plastering job (for his daughter) with that egg sandwich and bottle of water his reward, he was back on the ground.

He’d done his greyhound training apprenticeship and was reaping the rewards, even if it was by this time a sandwich and water.

*****

ABOUT a decade or more ago, Adam Mcintosh decided he would like to get back into greyhound racing.

As a teenager, he’d dabbled in ‘the dogs’.

But, like many, work pressures, married life and a young family took up Adam’s time and finances.

When Adam, by this time living on a house block out at Strathpine, decided the time was right to get another greyhound, he’d got to know legend trainer Ron Ball.

“Ron was giving me all the advice I needed every time I rang him,” said Adam. “And, I was forever on his coat tails picking up as much as I could.”

Adam was aware of the ‘old fella’ living across the road who had a couple of kennels under his house but was, by this time, a veteran of greyhound racing and without a dog of his own.

Adam knew his name was Syd Norris.

This he mentioned to Ron Ball.

“Ronny’s first piece of advice when I mentioned that Syd Norris lived across the road from me was that I should get to know Syd instantly and get him involved in whatever I did with dogs,” said Adam.

The ‘old fella’ knew his game. Syd Norris, and his late dad Perc, had been traipsing around dog tracks in south-east Queensland since the 1950s.

Syd had trained greyhound of the year Solar Beach. He knew what he was talking about and Adam was to benefit from Syd’s incredible knowledge.

“It got to the stage where Syd and I would trip around with the dogs as much as he and I could together,” said Adam.

“I knew the great Knocka Norris was named after Syd.

“From the moment I introduced myself, Syd and I would go trialling, racing, just generally loving being involved with greyhounds.”