Caption: Jason Madden with his new greyhound Fly Away Frank, a gift from Rod and Rebecca McDonald.

YOU may struggle to find a more passionate person in greyhound racing than Hunter Valley participant Jason Madden.

 His love of watching races and being in awe of trainers shines through from the moment you commence a conversation with him. After losing his beloved pop Peter Quinton, a renowned mentor from Muswellbrook, Jason was determined to stay in touch with the industry and yearned to own some dogs of his own.

 Thanks to the generosity of prominent owner Luke Miller, Jason finally realised his dream of owning a greyhound. And more recently, trainers Rod and Rebecca McDonald, Shane Cartwright and Matt Martin have kindly provided him with a light brindle greyhound called Fly Away Frank (by Brad Hill Billy), a winner of nine races.

 He will be trained by Shane Cartwright, after being given to Madden by Rebecca and Rod McDonald, who also arranged transportation. Martin then collected the greyhound, prior to be being transferred to Cartwright’s South Kempsey kennels.

 This kind and selfless gesture is a perfect example of participants in the industry banding together to help a young man whose entire life is dedicated to greyhound racing.

 While faced with his own challenges, Jason  epitomises positivity as he never complains or lets his circumstances stop him from getting to his local track, cheering on his favourite trainers and let’s all hope he’ll be cheering Frank home for his first win for him in the not-too-distant future.

Long trip doesn’t faze Kiwi chaser

Most 21-year-olds are dreaming of their next holiday destination or maybe pursuing a new career, however that’s not the case for New Zealand trainer Riley Evans, who secured his maiden Group One win at Manukau on June 11  with Goldstar Carlito.

The chaser produced a sensational come-from-behind effort to claim victory over the gruelling 779m journey from box one. While the racing distance may seem like a testing effort that doesn’t even come close when Evans detailed the journey of transporting the greyhound from their kennels based in Leeston Canterbury to the track.

“We raced on Sunday night, but my dad left our place at midday on Friday, being a two-and-a-half-day trip just to get him there, it’s a monster trip.” Evans said.

“It was also the second week we did it, because we did the same thing the week before for the heat.

“He galloped at a friend of ours, Paul Freeman, also a renowned trainer in New Zealand. He’s quite a hyperactive dog and likes a run on the morning of a race, which we’ve figured out helps him out.

“It seems to help him blow off a bit of steam and it calms him down quite a bit.”

“We’ve worked out he seems to stay a lot better when we do this, and it works for him. We tried this with a few of our other dogs and it sort of took the edge off them, so it obviously didn’t work as well for them.

“On the morning of the race, we took him to Peter and Wendy Ferguson’s training property, and we galloped him on the morning of the race. It’s not a big gallop we give him, it’s roughly 300m.

“In theory, him galloping on the morning of a race doesn’t make a lot of sense and for him to finish off races the way he does – and he beat the likes of Know Keeper – it’s insane.

“Then once it was all over, we turned around travelled roughly 17-hours home by the time we made a few stops, including our ferry trip between the North and South Island.”

Understandably, Evans described the trip home – despite the distance – as being one of the quickest trips he felt like he’s ever done.

“The trip home felt like the shortest trip I’ve ever done; it went by so quick,” he said.

Evans recently returned to Australia for a second time and visited Robert Britton’s property, where he had the opportunity to handle Dirt Farmer for Tim Britton in winning a heat of the Group One Sandown Cup.

Evans’ next bucket list item is to win the National Distance final to be held at The Meadows later this year with Goldstar Carlito a live chance if he can qualify.

For a greyhound who’s no stranger to spending long hours in the back of a van and on a ferry, the testing trip to Australia may not be as taxing as many may believe.

“I almost think the travel to Australia would be better and less hours, given it’s only three and a bit hours on a plane to get to Melbourne.”

With the current success of New Zealand chaser Postman Pat for Jason Thompson, Evans’ dream is certainly not out of reach and he may in fact be taking the title in one of the shortest travel trips he’ll ever do with a greyhound back home.