Brad Northfield led in his first winner as a 14-year-old teenager in 1973 and he has not stopped winning races since.
A member of greyhound racing’s most famous family, Brad Northfield and wife Lyn breed, raise, break-in and train greyhounds on 13 acres in the NSW northern rivers district, an area which has always been home to the Northfield clan.
Charlie "Pop" Northfield trained Bonall’s Return to win the 1946 Casino and Ballina Cups and prepared Stratheden Rock to an historic win over the Sydney champion Zoom Top at Lismore in 1969.
"Pop’s" son Bill trained the mighty PRETTY SHORT, who, in the mid-1980s, won 50 races and established an astonishing 14 track records.
Bill is the father of current trainers Charlie and Mitch Northfield, while Brad’s father Charlie was "Pop’s" nephew. Brad’s brother, Glen, is another trainer in the area who wins his fair share of races.
"As soon as I got my attendant’s licence in 1973 led out a dog called Pied Rhythm, which was Paul Cauchi’s great sprinter Pied Rebel, and the dog won," Brad recalled.
"When I was 18 I received my owner-trainer’s licence and by the late 1980s, when I started breeding my own greyhounds, I started enjoying real success.
"Still the best dog I’ve had was MAJOR FOX, who I bought as a pup out of the Greyhound Recorder for only $500.
"He won a Bull & Barley Cup final at Wentworth Park but was so good I left him with Don McMillan to train in Sydney.
"Unfortunately MAJOR FOX broke a hock in a qualifying heat of the Vic Peters Classic and that finished him.
"But Don, who won the Sydney trainers’ premiership several times, had a lot of success for me with Bralyn Maisie, the dam of a lot of my more recent top greyhounds.
"I trained Bralyn Maisie to win 10 races in succession at Casino and one at Lismore before sending her to Sydney.
"Don won 12 races in the city with Bralyn Maisie including the 2007 National Futurity, the 2007 Ladies Bracelet in race record time of 29.90 and she finished fourth to the Victorian dog Slater in the 2007 Golden Easter Egg final.
"At stud Bralyn Maisie, who has now been retired from breeding, produced Bralyn County, Bralyn Midge and Bralyn Stripes from the same litter.
"Bralyn County won 26 races but because Don had retired I took him to Wentworth Park where he won five races, although the 18 hour round trip going back and forth week after week was taxing for us both.
"Bralyn Midge won a Casino Cup and a Grafton Cup while Bralyn Stripes was a prolific winner who won a dozen at Lismore at 26 at Casino."
Brad’s newest star is Bralyn Stalker, a 38.8kg giant who is from Bralyn Maisie’s March, 2012 litter to El Grand Senor.
"He is very fast and although he has not been tried beyond 411m I think he will run 500 metres," Brad said.
"Don McMillan was visiting Lyn and I four months ago when Bralyn Stalker was still only a pup in the yard and he phoned us when he returned to Sydney to say he had a dream that the dog turned out to be the best we have ever had."
Don’s dream could come true as Bralyn Stalker has won his only races, at Casino, in 22.80 and 22.92, sensational times for a juvenile.
These days Brad has eight race dogs in work along with three brood bitches and he has high hopes for Bralyn Sal, who has litters by El Grand Senor and Dyna Tron.
"Bralyn Sal won over all three distances, 411m, 484m and 620m at Casino, but didn’t have success in Sydney because she was a terrible traveller," Brad said.
"I was too young to appreciate Zoom Top so the best greyhounds I’ve seen were Flying Amy, the Queensland bitch who won the National Sprint Championship in 1995 and the 1989 National Derby winner Worth Doing.
"Harold Park, which is no longer with us, was my favourite track, but now it would be Casino, which is expected to be converted from grass to loam within the next six months.
"I have mixed feelings about that because while you get more toe injuries on grass you tend to get hock problems with loam, and toes are more easily repaired."
Surprisingly, since Don McMillan’s retirement, Brad has held off sending any of his classy team to a Sydney trainer.
"I have had numerous phone calls from Sydney trainers offering to take my dogs but if I send a good dog to one trainer another might get upset so for the time being I’ll keep training them myself," he concluded.
