Caption: Kerri-Lyn Harkness and Steve Woods with one of their dogs, Moment Of Glory (Photo: Just Greyhound Photos)  

By PAT McLEOD

YOUNGSTER Fancy A Scotch is taking Kerri Harkness and Steve Woods into unchartered waters. Both are unsure how far the trip will take them, but at least the return ticket has already been paid for.

On Thursday night at Albion Park Fancy A Scotch (Hooked On Scotch – Bonne Chance) will jump from Box 8 in the final of the Listed Qgold Rookies (520m). This will be the first of nine finals on the night, which total almost $250,000 in prizemoney and make up the inaugural Qgold concept.

Qgold is a part of the Golden Greys Summer Carnival and is especially designed to reward Queensland-bred chasers.

The nine finals straddle a variety of distances and classes and give trainers such as Harkness and Wood their moment in the carnival spotlight.

The couple – on and off the track – have formed a successful owning and training duo across 30 years out of their Park Ridge (Brisbane) training base.

“We’ve never won the big one,” says Steve. “We have had plenty of good bread-and-butter dogs. I ran second in a Lord Mayor’s Cup at The Gabba with Icy Profit and have had a second in the Ipswich Auction Consolation.

“In the past we used to train for other people, but these days we just train our own.”

They have about 15 dogs currently in work, the majority of them are youngsters that they purchased about 18 months ago.

“We used to breed one or two litters a year,” explains Steve. “But then we ran out of breeding stock, so we started to buy pups.

“About 18 months ago we bought about 10, three-month-old pups. We did all the rearing, pre-training for them and they are all racing now.

“A little while after we bought them, we also purchased Fancy A Scotch as a 13-month old. We also did all the track work on him.

“We broke him in down our straight and he was just a natural. He is very good. He is a very smart little dog. Very keen to learn. Very professional in everything he does. He is still a bit of a pup, very young … in fact he’s the youngest in the field on Thursday night.”

After 50 years in the industry, former builder Steve knows not to get carried away with ‘what might be’.

“At this stage let’s just say I am confident that he will be a good, solid, bread-and-butter dog,” he says, but you know he is holding back.

“Look, I do think he has potential,” but that is as far as Steve will go.

First prizemoney for the Rookies race on Thursday night is $15,600. There are two other finals worth $25,000. All these races are ‘Listed’.

Steve applauds the Qgold concept.

“Certainly, it is nice to be there (in the Thursday night carnival spotlight),” he says. “We deserve to be there. For sure. Kerry deserves to be there with the dog and it is great for the industry to have something like this.

“It is a great incentive and it is nice to see variety on Thursday night and it is not all just 520m dogs.

“Some of those sprinters don’t get the chance to run for better prizemoney and this gives them that chance.”

While both Steve and Kerri have hopes for Fancy A Scotch’s future, the smart young chaser has already paid his dues. Of his four starts he has not been out of a placing with a win, two seconds and a third for a prizemoney collect of just over $5000.

But that is not where the money trail ends. His first start was over 395m on a Wednesday at Albion Park.

Steve knew the dog had ability and loved the 10-1 odds.

“We did win a lot of money at this dog’s first start,” he said. “We did have a very good punt on him and got 10-1. We would not have had the punt if we were not confident in the dog.

“I had one of the biggest wins that I have had in 50 years. A lot of people know what I won, but let’s just say there were a few zeroes at the end of it.

“Kerry doesn’t usually have a punt. $50 pulls her up, but she won a lot of money as well.”

And what about Thursday night? Steve knows there are some very handy dogs in the race, especially Ray Burman’s Smoking Sam (6) and Travis Elson’s Bear’s Bullet (1).

“I will be looking for him (Fancy A Scotch) to cross over and lead, but he will need to improve by about four lengths, so whether he does or not we will see,” he said.

“Some of the inside dogs have real speed, but they have to ‘do it’ now in a race field, not in a trial.

“I will be backing my bloke for sure. I just don’t know what the price will be … but it should be decent.”