Good Odds that Townsville owner is enjoying greyhound ride

By Jordan Gerrans

Retired North Queenslander Albert Harris came into greyhound racing later in his life but he has quickly found his groove in the sport as an owner.

The 81-year-old has only owned chasers for the last three or so years and his small team have already racked up a number of prestigious honours.

The Townsville retiree owns reigning Townsville Greyhound Racing Club Greyhound of the Year Good Odds Rascal.

With the sizeable stakes he has received from Good Odds Rascal’s winning ways in the north, Harris has recently purchased Good Odds Digger.

Good Odds Digger is on a similar path to stardom like ‘Rascal’, claiming the feature Young Guns Final on Tuesday and now the black dog is being aimed at the Townsville Cup later this year.

“The Cup now is the plan, we are hoping we have a Cup dog in the making,” Harris said on Wednesday morning after being at the track on Tuesday to witness the victory.

Harris has lived in Townsville for the majority of his life and managed ten pin bowling centres across the state for a day job.

After retiring from the work force, he wandered over to the Townsville Showgrounds complex on a Tuesday evening to watch the dogs out of the blue and it has just gone from there.

He admits he was not a ‘big racing man’ back then but he has most certainly been bitten by the greyhound bug.

He acquired his first dog with Bluewater trainer Michael Hickmott in early 2021.

Joda – a black bitch – was named after Harris’ children and won five races as well as being placed on 10 occasions from 34 starts before she retired.

Good Odds Rascal followed Joda and has been a revelation in NQ since transferring north from the kennel of prominent Sydney trainer Frank Hurst.

He has racked up 19 victories over the speedy 380 metre distance, recording a career best time of 21.45 seconds which is not far removed from Plum Tuckered’s track record at the venue.

Harris met Hurst at the Million Dollar Chase Final a couple of years ago and struck up a relationship, which led to ‘Digger’ and ‘Rascal’ heading north to Hickmott’s kennel.

“I told him that if he ever had a dog that he wanted to sell then he should think of me. Sometime after he got in contact with him and he thought the dog would go well in Townsville and that was Rascal,” Harris said.

“We initially thought he was out of our price range but after discussing with my wife, we bought him.

“The proof is in the pudding, winning the greyhound of the year. It has worked out well.”

Digger also started his racing journey with Hurst out of brood bitch Good Odds Meghan.

Hickmott and Harris purchased him with the 2024 Townsville Cup in mind with the Young Guns series over 498 metres a key stepping stone.

He won in 29.01 seconds in Tuesday’s Final and has now won four from seven since arriving in the northern city.

“The time was nothing flash on Tuesday night because of the rain we have had up here, but the way he won – he won like a good dog,” the owner said.

Good Odds Digger is likely to drop back in distance for the 380 metre Young Guns series at Townsville in the coming weeks before going back up again to the Cup trip later in the year.

Hickmott prepared a winning double on Tuesday night with Polarizer also getting the money.

Local dog man Tony Parker also had a prolific evening on Tuesday, collecting three victories from his kennel.