Caption: Kenny the Brute has caused plenty of cheers back in the Old Dart

By DAVID BRASCH

(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.)

WHEN Victorian gallopers One Night Only and Kenny The Brute line up for races, there is a definite stirring across the world.

No, neither of those dogs are superstars with the greyhound racing watching their every performance.

The difference with these successful race dogs is that they are owned by ‘a bunch of Poms’ who are the most avid followers of greyhounds.

Leading trainer Kel Greenough prepares both with Kenny The Brute (Kinloch Brae-She\’s Scandalous) winning seven and being placed seven times for stakes of $40,000 and One Night Only (Fernando Bale-Uno Arjo) winning eight and being placed 11 times for stakes of $35,000 (to time of writing).

Neither are officially owned by ‘the bunch of Poms’.

\”GRV is well aware of who are the real owners of the dogs,\” said Kel. \”But, to comply with GRV rules, someone in Australia has to be responsible for the dogs so we have had to register them in our names.\”

But, for all intents and purposes, the Poms are the owners and the stakes money goes their way.

\”We have two different syndicates,\” said Kel. \”One is about six who own Kenny The Brute and they are called the Blue Tick Syndicate.

\”They have been going back in England racing dogs for some time.

\”The other syndicate has about 20 members.\”

Mick Floyd, racing manager at Sandown, originally was approached from England by ‘The Poms’ wanting to own dogs in Australia. It was Mick who approached Kel to find each of the syndicates some likely prospects.

One of the syndicates includes leading English trainer Pat Jansenns, the other contains greyhound racing media man David Mitchell.

And the beauty of each syndicate is that they cannot believe they are racing dogs for the prizemoney riches available in Australia.

\”One of the syndicates won a feature race back home and it was worth 200 pound,\” said Kel. \”AS few days later one of their dogs in Australia won a fifth grade at Sandown and earned $6400.\”

‘The Poms’ just can\’t get enough of Aussie racing.

\”I\’ve been friended on Facebook by them, and through Whats App I get about 20 messages a week from the syndicate members,\” said Kel.

\”They also race a dog called Captain Dynamite who is a fine stayer but keeps breaking down.

\”What The Poms can\’t believe is how financially well they have done with their Aussie dogs.

\”They cannot believe they have finished in front. They\’ve been in dogs for a long time, but admitted they never expected to get prizemoney.\”

Kel says the syndicates were ‘hot’ to come to Australia and witness racing here first hand and get to see their own dogs race.

That was until Covid hit the world.

\”Obviously England has been worse hit than Australia so that ended any hopes The Poms had of coming out her soon,\” said Kel.

\”But that is their plan and they are all keen to get more dogs to race here. They are all an absolute pleasure to deal with … even when their dogs get beaten.\”