When Bailey Pringle dropped out of school at the age of 16 and started a tiling apprenticeship at the request of his dad David, the youngster knew he wasn’t long for the caper.
The 18-year-old, much like a long line of family members, was always destined for a date with the dogs
“Being involved with the dogs was always something I was always going to do. I tried the tiling for two months, I had the best boss you could ask for, but it just wasn’t for me, I had to be around the dogs,” Bailey said.
“We had about 70 greyhounds at our place in Clergate at the time, most of them being reared and broken in, and even though Dad was doing all the work with them in the morning, he’d have to leave to get meat most days. That meant my Nan, Rose, would be doing them by herself until he got home.”
“Nan loves it, but it was a lot of work, so I wanted to help out. It’s my only passion really so I quit the apprenticeship and started looking after the rearing dogs and nan does the kennel dogs now.”
The Pringle’s annual trips to the Coonamble racing carnival lighting the spark in their oldest boy.
So much so that Bailey recently trained his first ever winner, Highway Boy, on debut at Goulburn, before the dog won again at Temora.
“You can’t get much better than that hey…it was so surreal, big names like Micky Hardman and Darren Sultana were in the race and when they were there congratulating me, there was no better feeling,” Bailey added.
“Initially I had a different dog picked out of the same litter but just as he was about to start, he had some neurological problems so he couldn’t race. Dad said I could have Highway Boy instead, who we named after a song by my favourite artist Zach Bryan, and it just went from there.”
“He’s a very good dog. Ever since he first got broken in, he’s been showing ability and hasn’t stopped. I convinced dad to let me race him for a while and even though he’s not a champion yet, I think he can win a few races.”
A young Bailey (bottom left) and the rest of the Pringle family
The youngster now firmly fixated on a path he says was inspired by his dad and late Pop, Jack.
“Pop passed away a few years ago but he was the biggest reason I wanted to do the dogs. He loved them so much,” Bailey remarked.
“Pop was born in Victoria and when he was younger, they would go town to town training dogs secretly and he never told his family. At one stage he was living in a tent behind the hospital at Orange and still training dogs.”
“He was working in the hospital to earn a bit of money to keep them going and he told me he’d pinch a bit of food from the hospital just to feed the dogs. He always put dogs first. Right now, our dogs are in the air conditioned, double bricked, heated 20 block kennel while we’re living in a 70-year-old shack…that’s how much we put dogs first in this family.”
That family synonymous with the sport of greyhound racing.
Bailey’s great uncle Ray Pringle trained the 1970 NSW Greyhound of the Year Tara Flash, Pop Jack trained 1989 NSW Greyhound of the Year Worth Doing, one of the sport's all-time greats, while David mentored Wentworth Park track record holder, Shakey Jakey among others.
Bailey Pringle at 10 years of age (right), with siblings Harry and Bonnie alongside Shakey Jakey
“I’m just trying to live up to the Pringle name now,” Bailey added.
“I wish Pop was here to see how we were going now but I’m sure he was up there watching Highway Boy get around as well.”
“I’ll never stop learning about dogs and if I ever think I know it all, I’m doing something wrong. I think Pop would like that way of going about it.”
Highway Boy will next go around in Race 8 on the program at Temora at Wednesday, October 2.
