Caption: NSW trainer Craig Chappelow, left, with Overflow Beau after he won his heat of the Flying Amy Classic at Albion Park recently. (Photo: Box 1 Photography)

Each month Chase Newspaper asks an experienced greyhound identity to give their advice to industry newcomers:

By CRAIG CHAPPELOW

APPRENTICESHIPS, that’s a key to becoming a greyhound trainer with success and one I learned at a very young age and one I would suggest is so very important for newcomers to this industry.

My greyhound racing start was always going to happen. My great-grandmother raced dogs over in South Australia and I grew up with my Dad having a few in the backyard at our home in Sylvania and my uncle training out at The Oaks.

My apprenticeship came at Wentworth Park where I worked on trialling days and nights for 10 years, right up to the stage when I was starter for some time.

It was a great learning curve for me because I got to watch all the greats of greyhound training, see their methods, and learn, learn and learn some more.

While greyhound training for my family came on a houseblock, today’s lifestyle virtually forces us onto specific greyhound properties.

I was working at Qantas but left during Covid and have been fulltime training for the past few years. I do miss the Qantas work and the opportunity to get away from the constancy of training and working with the dogs 24/7.

My wife Samantha and our two children, Roxie and Josh, have a 30-acre property at Oakdale and we have just bought the greyhound-specific property at Thirlmere owned by Eddie Kingswell.

It has a 50-dog licence, five galloping paddocks, straight, bullring and a couple of kennel blocks. My wife Sam is a forward thinker and she is right behind the switch to Thirlmere.

Our move to acreage came about because it became harder and harder to train greyhounds from a house block and this is something of which newcomers should be aware.

Taking dogs to a nearby beach to gallop was proving so difficult.

At one stage as a young man, I’m now 46, I went to Paul Wheeler’s property then at The Oaks to help out and I even asked him for a job. He suggested I stick at Qantas and get my own training property.

I’ve done both, the house block and the greyhound property. Of course everyone has a different set of circumstances.

A dedicated greyhound training property makes life so much easier for a trainer.

My advice for newcomers is to latch onto someone who can be a mentor for them.

I would get a lot of queries from mates at work about owning greyhounds. At first these mates would rib me constantly about what goes into training, and when they found out, they were amazed.

Being an owner is great for newcomers because you get a hands-on attachment but without the actual need for greyhound preparation. But the shift to training for owners can be  daunting.

The first piece of advice I give anyone asking is to find pups from the right damlines. Right back to when I was a kid, it was impressed upon me that a broodbitch is 70 to 80 per cent behind the success of a greyhound.

When I bought Embrace (a Group 1 winner and multiple Group placed and finalist), I researched her damline. I was looking through greyhound data for pups while at work one night, spotted the litter advertised and liked what I saw.

It is the Paua To Burn and Chili Berger damline and few are better. The sire is the last thing I look at when contemplating buying a pup. Embrace is by Turanza Bale, the sire of Paul Wheeler’s champion Xylia Allen.

I bought Embrace solely because of her damline.

My other current Group dog is Overflow Beau and it is exactly the same with him, a very powerful damline still producing Group dogs.

My advice is to stick to the very best damlines, get those pups reared by the best and get advice from the best in the industry.

That is something many newcomers do wrong. They get advice from the wrong people.

But, despite those words, we all need a great amount of luck to get it all right and get winners, and hopefully Group winners. Training is not a casual job.

Remember greyhound racing is “gambling”. It’s a tough industry but by putting the percentages in your corner, you can succeed.

Greyhound racing will become a lifestyle for anyone training. It is NOT a hobby. There are many pitfalls, injuries and the likes, but if you happen to win a Group race … well, the rewards are there for you to see.

The money today is amazing from when I started, but the costs are piling up as well – the meat, trialling, petrol … you name it.

My training methods are not to over-trial my dogs. I got that from the great Darren McDonald. A dog like Embrace can come off a three-week break with just work up the straight track and still run 29.50 around Wentworth Park. Others will need a hitout.

While working around my kennels each day, I often will listen to racing radio and when horse trainers are being interviewed, they will talk about what goes into preparing their team.

I often think if I switch to horse training, it would be so daunting for me. So I suppose that must be the case for newcomers getting into training greyhounds. If I was switching to horse, my first choice would be to join a stable to learn.

The more background you can pick up, the better. Things I take for granted when training must be daunting (there’s that word again) for newcomers.

Greyhounds are wonderful animals. Activists think it is cruel to have them locked up all day and night, but come to our property and you will see they are on the move constantly.

If you treat them the best, they will respond. Samantha and I have 16 in work, which is plenty for us. My Dad helps out with the break-ins and the young dogs. Marty Hallinan rears all our pups and he does a magnificent job.

Some trainers can manage large numbers in their kennels, but I don’t know how.

So, my advice is to buy only out of the best broodbitches you can afford, get an ‘apprenticeship’ with a successful trainer or two or three, and look after your dogs.

They will look after you.