TONY Hoyland and Trevor Lindsay have never trained a Wentworth Park winner but are on the verge of being catapulted onto the sport's biggest stage after preparing each of the two brilliant heat winners for this Thursday's Casino Regional Final of the Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase.
With the placegetters in this week's 484m event qualifying for the Million Dollar Chase semi-finals at Wentworth Park on October 9, Howland, trainer of fastest qualifier Isle Of Lachlan, and Lindsay, whose bitch Aston Barbie "came out running" to win the other heat, are looking at opening their city accounts in a prelude to the world's biggest race.
Placegetters in this week's Casino regional final will be drawn in the "sudden death" semi-finals of the Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase at Wentworth Park on October 9, where each of the eight victors will contest the MDC final in the last ever meeting at the sport's spiritual home on October 16.
In last Thursday's heats, Isle Of Lachlan led all the way to notch his 14th win in 34 starts, clocking 27.48, while Aston Barbie wasn't headed to record her 10th win in 39 outings, posting 27.82.
Aston Barbie recorded the quickest first split with Isle Of Lachlan's second section topping her.
Tony Hoyland, from Codrington, 20 minutes from the Casino track, has been training for 30 years and secured Isle Of Lachlan from her NSW central coast owner and former trainer Troy Macdonald.
"I educated Isle Of Lachlan for Troy but after winning five of his first nine starts in Sydney the dog didn't go on with the job so Troy felt a change of scenery might help and I was asked to become his trainer.” Hoyland explained.
"I have a farm near Casino and from there I have broken in a lot of greyhounds for Troy and his mother-in-law Lorraine Atchison, who races the dogs with the 'Tarawi' prefix.”
"I have brought greyhounds to Wentworth Park three times without winning a race, although I did have the thrill of seeing my greyhound On The Froth contest a heat of Space Star's 2015 group one Association Cup there.”
"Isle Of Lachlan has box eight in Thursday's regional final and I'm pleased with that draw because he will run straight as a gun barrel out of the boxes.”
"Obviously Aston Barbie will be hard to beat and so too will be McKeon, who was favourite when finishing third in my heat.”
"McKeon didn't begin as well as she usually does last week so is a big danger.''
Trevor Lindsay, whose property on the Queensland Sunshine Coast is five hours from Casino, trains Aston Barbie for Ray Borda, one of Australia's most prolific and successful owners.
"My parents Col and Maureen Lindsay were banana growers on the Sunshine Coast but always trained a greyhound or two for a hobby.” Lindsay explained.
"I've had a long background in the sport, and I've known Ray Borda for 20 years.”
"For 16 years I pre-trained for the famous Melbourne trainer Peter Giles and was helping him when he was training the top class stayers Sargent Major, who won the 2006 group one Sandown Cup and group two Bold Trease, along with another very good dog called Spalding.”
"Since then, I've worked for successful trainers like Victoria's Jason Thompson and Queenslanders Tony Zammit and Paul Felgate, but Aston Barbie is my chance for the big time after seven years training on my own.”
"Aston Barbie begins brilliantly in seven out of 10 of her races so while box six next Thursday is not ideal, if she jumps like she did in her MDC heat it won't matter.”
"Aston Barbie has never pulled up better after a race than she did following last Thursday's heat win and she absolutely loves the Casino track.”
