Domenico “Mick’’ Traino, whose greyhound My Lady Day broke the 30 second barrier in each of two Wentworth-park">Wentworth">Wentworth Park 520m wins last month, enjoyed the high point of his career in a phase of the sport which no longer exists.
Traino, 76, says the highlight of his 60 years in greyhound racing was when his champion hurdler Fiesta Ben broke a 17-year-old track record at Wentworth-park">Wentworth">Wentworth Park.
“He was so good he broke four track records in six weeks but the pinnacle was on May 14, 1977, when he smashed the record held by the famous fencer Smith’s Elect,’’ Traino said.
“My wife Dorothy is a cousin of Ray Selkrig, who rode Lord Fury to victory in the 1961 Melbourne Cup, and she pointed out that thoroughbreds who did not quite come up to scratch on the flat were often sent to Victoria to be tried over the jumps.
“It was timely for Fiesta Ben because hurdle racing was being reintroduced at Wenty so I made little jumps out of broomsticks and placed them around our backyard at Matraville.
“Fiesta Ben even had to jump over one to get to his dinner and each afternoon I would take him to a park in Malabar where there was a rosemary bush and we’d jump over it together.’’
Mick Traino’s initiation into greyhound racing came in 1948 when, as a 10-year-old, he worked after school at a bingo game near his family home on Crown Street, Wooloomooloo.
“DOLLY Bennett, who ran the bingo, was a close friend of famous trainer Vince Whittaker, who won the 1965 Vic Peters Classic with Daily Tide,’’ Traino recalled.
“DOLLY would take a hire car to the greyhounds and after I accepted her invitation to join her at Wollongong dogs I was completely won over.
“I had never seen a greyhound but they were such beautiful animals I soon became a regular with DOLLY at Wentworth and Harold Park along with Bulli and Dapto.
“While I was attending St Mary’s Cathedral School I bought a share in a greyhound which was no good but in 1959 myself and a mate bought a pup which we named Golden Classic and in May, 1961, he won a 400m maiden up the straight at Richmond.
“Golden Classic also won at Moss Vale and fuelled my interest so much I knocked back the chance to become a flight steward because it would have meant quitting training greyhounds.
“Instead I got a job on Randwick Council’s garbage trucks as the hours were perfect, I would exercise the greyhounds for an hour from 3.45am, work on the truck from 5.30 until finishing time, and then get back to the dogs."
It was not long before Traino was fully immersed in the sport.
“By 1965 I was living at Matraville where a neighbour, Bill Ducker, was a successful owner, trainer and National Coursing Association committeeman," he said.
“Bill had a wide running stayer called Kingdom Prince he had no time for so he gave him to me to train.
“When I first got Kingdom Prince I trained him by the book without results but then discovered that by reducing his exercise and curtailing his trialling he improved sharply.
“The lazier I got as far as walking him was concerned, the better Kingdom Prince went, and he won a dozen races for me including two events over 732m at Harold Park.’’
Traino’s success with Kingdom Prince prompted Ducker and his friend, Arthur Walz, another NCA official, to supply him with more greyhounds.
Best of them was Walton, still regarded by Traino as his fastest dog.
“It was impossible to put weight on him because he was such a picky eater but Walton won first up for me at Dapto, scoring by 15 lengths in sizzling time of 29.70,’’ Traino recalled.
“At his first look at Wenty he hand-slipped post-to-post in 24.40, which was a record at the time.
“But at his first Wentworth-park">Wentworth Park race he broke a shoulder after leading around the first turn and although I patched him up and he returned to win at PENRITH, Walton was never the same dog.’’
More recently Traino had a lot of fun with Easy Living, a September 2000 whelping he bought for only $2000.
“He only won 15 of his 140 races but rung up 40 placings, earned $16,000 prizemoney, and was a fantastic punting dog because I won a lot of money by including him in trifectas,’’ Traino said.
“I got my current good bitch My Lady Day through breeding with Arica Dora, a bitch I trained for Leon Bozovitch and who I bought when she finished racing.
“Arica Dora busted a toe while being trained in Melbourne so Leon gave her to me to train because I swam my greyhounds regularly and the salt water healed Arica Dora’s toe.
“She won $27,000 in stakes for us and since I purchased her she has had three litters to race and each of her offspring has won.
“Her fourth and final litter, comprising seven dogs and two bitches, are just three weeks old and incredibly are all jet black.’’
Traino, a GBOTA member for over 50 years, has just My Lady Day, her sibling Carnegie Hall and another of Arica Dora’s progeny, Bluza Brewin, in work, with My Lady’s recent post-to-post Wenty hand-slip of 24.27 among the fastest times ever posted on the Glebe circuit.
