By MIKE HILL

HOWARD (near Hervey Bay, Qld) based trainer Allen Kelly is having a \’lot of fun\’ with his well-named  \’friendship giveaway\’ sprinter Savuro.

\”He\’s named after the former brilliant North Queensland rugby league winger Noah \’Mr Footy\’ Savuro,\” Kelly said.

\”I used to work with Noah in the mines at Mt Isa. He\’s a pastor now, you know.\”

Kelly said he had asked Savuro, a Foley Shield legend, if he could name his talented chaser after him.

\”Noah said it was okay,\” he said.

In 2014, rugby league historian Tony Price launched his book More Than The Foley Shield in Mt Isa.

In it he named his best team of North Queensland stars from the period before the Cowboys, and he had Savuro and Kerry Boustead as his two wingers.

Describing the Fijian-born speedster, Price said: \”Savuro never played for Queensland or Australia but with speed, strength and determination he played in seven Foley Shield finals, winning six.

And the Kelly sprinter is also showing some of the same traits, especially speed and strength.

Last month Savuro staged a brilliant all-the-way win in the $5250 Uncle Rusty\’s Photos Young Guns Final (460m) at Bundaberg.

A $3.70 second favourite, the black sprinter was first to hit the ground and once in front  pulled away from his rivals, beating the Robert Jacobsen-trained Go Emmy Go ($4.80) with another Kelly runner – the winner\’s litter mate Roman Siren ($21) – third.

The winner had six lengths to spare at the finish and covered the journey in a sparkling 26.18s (BOD) – only .24s outside Shakey Diesle\’s track record (25.94s).

It was the sprinter\’s fifth best-of-day run and pushed his record to eight wins and five placings from just 17 starts.

It was a highly impressive victory, justifying several offers by trainers to race Savuro in Brisbane.

\”I agree that he could win in town, but I replied with a big \’No\’,\” said the 76-year-old pensioner.

\”I just want to race him. It\’s good fun and it keeps me out of trouble.

\”And the wins are a good bonus on top of the pension.\”

Savuro is a member of an impressive Paw Licking-Go Wild Shaz litter bred by Coominya (west of Brisbane) owner-breeder-trainer Bob Higgs.

In fact, three members of the litter were in the Bundy Young Guns final, while another two were the reserves.

\”Bob and I have been friends for a long time,\” Kelly said. \”We were friends in Mt Isa where Bob was a leading public servant.

\”He then moved to Brisbane before settling at Coominya and we have remained friends.

\”When the litter of nine arrived he gave some of the pups to his friends.

\”They were his friendship giveaways,\” said Kelly. \”And the litter\’s been highly successful – eight have raced and all are winners.\”

Kelly has three of the youngsters in his kennels – his two, Savuro (17: 8-4-1) and Roman Siren (30: 4-10-4) – and he trains Courtois (29: 6-4-3) for Higgs.

Another member of the litter – Dodgy Kell, trained by Higgs, won an earlier edition of the Bundy Young Guns in mid-March.

\”Bob deserves credit for breeding the litter,\” Kelly said.

He said the well-bred brood bitch Go Wild Shaz (Go Wild Teddy-Rose Chalice) recently had a second litter of four pups to Ritza Lenny.

\”I don\’t think Bob will be giving any of those pups away,\” he said.

Kelly, who has been in the industry for five decades, said he had been a member of the steering committee and a foundation member of the Mt Isa club when launched in the early 70s.

\”I was the No.1 badge holder,\” he said.

The trainer said the club staged its last race in 1997 – a year after he moved to Howard.

\”At that stage they only had a handful of trainers and it wasn\’t viable to continue racing,\” he said.

* FOOTNOTE: The Bundaberg club would like to thank Tommy and Gaynor Lowe for providing the Young Guns trophies.