One million dollars is more than most of us will ever see, but having his family by his side to share the moment was worth so much more to Ken Burnett.
After all, had it not been for his then young children around 25 years ago, it’s unlikely that Burnett would have entered the world of greyhound racing.
A quarter of a century later, Burnett stood in front of a huge crowd at Wentworth Park who were chanting his name and that of his greyhound Power And Glory, after they won the Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase grand final on October 17.
And alongside him were his three, now grown children, Brooke, Kenneth and Adam, his partner Mandy Brunton, and her two girls, Jessica and Taylor.
“A lot of things made that night special, but nothing makes it as special as being able to share it with the ones you love,” Burnett said.
He then revealed that around the turn of the century, he became involved in greyhounds with a dog named Hank Junior.
“I went through a marriage break-up, and I had three little kids. I was always thinking about what we could do on the weekends.
“At the time I was working as a supervisor at Inghams Chickens, and a lot of guys there had greyhounds. A fellow there named Wayne Wilmott said to me why don't you get a dog for the kids?
“Why not I thought so I bought a dog through Wayne, and we used to go on the weekend to places like Richmond or wherever they were racing, and watch them. That’s how it all began. It was because of the kids that my journey started. I got into the sport purely for that purpose.”
Burnett had a few dogs with Wilmott, then partnered with father and son trainers Charlie and Mark Azzopardi, before having a dog with Harry Sarkis.
It was there he hit a fork in the road. The opportunity arose to buy champion greyhound Brett Lee and Sarkis suggested Burnett buy the dog and stand him at stud.
“I think it was going to cost me around $600,000 and I spoke to my father and he said to me “you’ve worked all your life for what you’ve achieved, go and buy a property with that money.” So I took my father’s advice knowing anything could happen to the dog, a snake could bite it, anything at all ...
“Keith Pedrana bought Brett Lee with Harry, and Keith still wanted me to go halves, but I didn’t. I bought this property we’re at now in Bringelly, six acres, and just three kms west of second airport. It’s probably worth a bit.
“Mind you, Brett Lee earned around $14 or $15 million at stud.”
When he moved to Bringelly, Burnett lived on the same street as another industry participant, Andy Lord.
“Andy said come and work for me and I’ll teach you a few things. Andy taught me how to properly check dogs, and I remember him saying to me: “you've got the feel for this, you'll be successful.””
After advertising to rear greyhounds, Burnett received a call from man called Reg Delaney. He met Reg who then introduced him to a horse trainer from Central Queensland called Jimmy Chiel.
Chiel told him he could help with his training methods, provided he “forget everything greyhound people have told you. I'll tell you how train an animal.”
“I listened to him, and we did blood tests on dogs, with our work that we were doing, we'd go up to Appin we'd put them up the straight once, and then jog them around and get them back to their resting heart rate. We would monitor their hearts, get them to their resting heart rate then put them up the straight again. And we did that three times, and the third time was always the quickest.
“It was about getting the lactic acid out of their system, we did interval training, we heart rate monitored them, and it all grew from there.
“I’m still doing those things now. My work and training methods are very intense and that’s why I keep a small team.
“And I remember one thing Jimmy said to me: “when you get the superstar, he will be a real superstar when you train him this way.”
“And that’s Power And Glory.”
Five days on for the memorable victory, Burnett still sounds a little hoarse having celebrated immediately following the victory chanting with the large crowd.
“We sat here on Saturday night and watched the replays of the whole meeting and I can tell you it’s good when you know you’ve won, you can relax and enjoy watching,” Burnett said.
The MDC victory accompanies Power And Glory’s win in NSW’s second biggest event the Ladbrokes Golden Easter Egg which he won in April. He becomes just the second greyhound to complete the double, the first being champion sprinter She’s A Pearl, who coincidentally was trained by Andy Lord.
“It’s funny how that’s worked out. Andy was so happy for me, and I’m so grateful for all the help he has given me throughout the years.”
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