Kline kennel mates to put their stamp on Chairman’s Cup

By Isaac Murphy

Brent Kline doesn’t operate a huge kennel, but what he lacks in quantity he makes up for with quality.

With just four in work, the trainer has two in form chances - Shilo and Logo - suiting up in this Thursday’s Chairman’s Handicap over the 600 metres, and Kline would love that feature win.

“It’s a huge tick for me to have two live chances in a Thursday night feature race, these races don’t come around too often and although there’s plenty of class in the race, there’s nothing that really scares you it’s a good feeling,” Kline said.

“Logo (5) is blistering early, so when I was having a look at the field today and where they’d get to from the box draws I thought the ideal result would be Logo to lead from the five and Shilo (4) to jump on her back from the four and work across into prominent positions.

“Obviously Ash Star and Blue Diva who are drawn one and two might have something to say about that, but I’m fairly confident both my bitches can give themselves a chance early and be in the finish.”

Kline has morphed Shilo into a middle-distance bitch over time and believes her breakthrough win in 34.89 on Monday could be the start of a serious streak.

“Shilo’s been knocking on the door for a long time and it finally opened for her on Monday night, she’s not too far away from really hitting her straps,” he said.

“The injury she had a couple of months ago with her back muscle had some lingering effects mentally and she just wasn’t quite herself, but her race sense has improved ten-fold where she avoids trouble and we’re starting to see the best of her.

“She’s developed a consistent racing pattern over the 600 where she’s happy to be second or third around that first corner and doesn’t have to lead, which we saw come to fruition on Monday.”

Kline keeps to his routines like clockwork but had to break protocol this week backing up Shilo on three days’ notice, and her Monday victory was enough for him to give her the nod.

“I was a bit weary of backing up Shilo so quickly from her Monday night win to another Thursday 600, but the way she won really convinced me and I thought I’d probably regret it if I didn’t put her in,” he said.

“I may look like a master or a fool depending on how she goes Thursday, but the Chairman’s Cup are the type of races we want to be winning and if she runs out of gas I can take it nice and easy on her for a couple of weeks.”

Logo came to Kline from Tasmania at the start of the year and the trainer wasn’t scared to declare he had a good one, and her body of work since she arrived backed up his confidence.

“I like to start them over the short course first on a two-turn track, that’s what she was familiar with at home in Tassie and with her speed I was able to build her up over the shorter distances,” Kline said.

“Like Shilo I feel like I’ve figured her out, we’ll give her a six hundred during the week where she’s very comfortable now.

“We’ll then go to Capalaba on Sunday for a training gallop and because she’s got speed we’re picking up a few winners cheques there too.”

Logo is out of Tony Brett’s champion Thirty Talks and it was Brett who recently reached out on how to get the best out of the breed.

“Tony Brett has Logo’s litter brother Buzzer Beater who’s got a tonne of ability but hasn’t really harnessed it yet so I’ve been chatting to Tony about how to get the best out of the breed,” Kline said.

“You can tell Logo is the daughter of Thirty Talks as she’s just the laziest, most chilled out animal you could find, but then you put her in the box she turns into a beast.

“My advice to Tony was to just take it easy with him because if he’s anything like Logo he’ll turn into a hell of a dog because Logo is just a gem at home and on the track.”

Shilo is the older of the duo at bang on two-and-a-half, something Kline has to remember that her and Logo hopefully have their best to come.

“I’ve got to step back every now and again just to temper my expectations when I realise how young both of them still are,” Kline said.

“They’ve both had busy programs and coming into the winter programming both travelling well and you want to keep them going, but they’re going to need a break at some stage as well.

“I’m just keeping a really close eye on them for any little signs that they do need a rest, because there’s plenty in front of them and you don’t want to burn to candle too early.”

Remarkably Kline’s middle-distance talent doesn’t end there; Ricolina Girl is still incredibly raw but coming off a 35.18 Albion Park 600 win, she isn’t far behind her kennel mates.

“Ricolina Girl is the fastest dog I’ve got in my kennel, she’s just needs things her way in a field, she’s only a little 25 kilo bitch and she can get buffeted around if she gets into a tight spot,” Kline said.

“One week she’ll come out and go 5.37 to the first mark at Ipswich and the week after that if she draws badly, she’ll go 5.60, but still chases as hard as anything.

“She’s a litter sister to Hard Style Rico who’s a Group dog in Melbourne and she certainly shares some of his traits.”

Having had the experience of building Shilo and Logo into genuine 600 metre bitches, Kline has the blueprint to get Ricolina Girl there in the near future.

“Out of the three we’ve got going over the 600 she’s the wildcard, she can ping from the five and win like she did the other week or walk out and charge home,” he said.

“She’s a real enigma, but the talent and ability are there that’s the main thing we’ve just got to get her racing with the same bravado as Shilo and Logo.”

Kline owns and trains all his dogs except Logo who owner Kyle Juracic brought to him; the two have struck up a friendship and it hasn’t taken long for the owner to want to get more involved in the sport.

“I’ve got to give a shout out to Logo’s owner Kyle Juracic, who has gone from a first-time owner who didn’t know much about the dogs to getting his handler’s license and having them on the lead whenever he can,” Kline said.

“If it wasn’t for blokes like him that go out and buy these dogs it wouldn’t work for a relatively small kennel like mine and every time she wins he’s posting all over Facebook and it gets other people interested in the sport.”