Michael "Bobby Hodges" believes Wentworth Park regulars were behind the $10 to $3.80 successful betting plunge on his maiden bitch My Baby Brooke at the track on Thursday night.
My Baby Brooke gave her supporters no worries as she jumped in front from box seven and led throughout, posting slick middle splits of 13.75 and 17.88 before winning by four lengths in a smart 29.75.
Course commentator Russell Veitch remarked before the race as to how My Baby Brooke had been the medium of a big betting coup but Hodgoes said: "I only had $100 on her.
"When I took her out of the kennels I noticed she had come down to $9 and she kept firming.
"A week earlier I had slipped My Baby Brooke from post-to-post at Wenty and she clocked 24.09 which is pretty quick for an unraced maiden.
"I guess some people watching that trial backed her accordingly.
"My Baby Brooke has always shown ability and was going so well I had been setting her for the Robert Smith Memorial Maiden at The Gardens in February.
"But a couple of niggling little injuries kept her out of that and forced me to save her for the Magic Maiden heats at Wentworth Park on April 2."
"She finished sixth in that race, at her first start, but her box manners have continued to improve all the time and I was quietly confident she could win last Thursday.''
Hodges is a hobby trainer with just three greyhounds in work, as he has been employed as a project manager for youth justice for eight years, a role which entails him with getting juveniles out of trouble.
"Before that I was a child protection officer for the Department of Community Services.
"Work commitments will keep me away from Wenty next week but I notice there is a race programmed there on April 23 for greyhounds with just one win, so I'll set My Baby Brooke for that,'' he said.
Hodges trains My Baby Brooke for his brother-in-law Damien Lee and his pal Paul Cleary, a school teacher who bred the greyhound.
While Hodgoes is not widely known in greyhound racing nobody has ever had a better "tutor" as he learned the art of training from the late Ken Cheetham, who trained 1964 National Derby winner Flying Myobb and NSW Greyhound of the Year award winners How's The Fort (1992) and Take The Kity (2009).
"When I first met 'Cheeto' I was living in Coonamble and he became a regular at the town's famous annual carnival,'' Hodges recalled.
"We became friends and he was always trying to convince me to come and live with him and his wife Marie in the Hunter Valley to help him with his dogs.
"I didn't do that but over the years in Coonamble I learned a lot from Cheeto, he taught me virtually everything I know about greyhounds.''
