Svensen shares special night with his biggest supporters

By Isaac Murphy

Allen Svensen has been training greyhounds at the Rockhampton club for over four decades and forged plenty of fond memories in that time, but he’d never had a night quite like last Wednesday.

It was Svensen’s first night back at the track in over six months after battling ill health, and what would unfold with kennel favourite Red Jamie dead heating for first place couldn’t have been written any better as family and friends revelled in the emotional night.

“It was a special night that’s for sure, I’ve been going through chemotherapy the last six months, so to get out of hospital and back to the track the week of my birthday was cause enough for celebration,” Svensen said.

“To then have my favourite dog come and dead heat with my daughter Kelly Suli’s dog (Oriental Gale) my first night back, it’s something I won’t forget.

“My daughter and I were poking fun at each other all week who was going to win, we never even dreamed that they’d dead heat on that night of all nights.

“I think the overriding feeling was thankfulness, obviously it hasn’t been the easiest time for the whole family and to be able to forget about all the tough times and be surrounded by family and plenty of mates at the track doing what I love is was just what I needed.”

Red Jamie is the type of dog every trainer dreams of, the giveaway has forged a career with 19 wins and 47 minors from 125 starts, and Svensen is still pinching himself he got the dog for free.

“I’ve always got in touch with George Farrugia about dogs he’s looking to sell and I had my eye on a couple towards the back end of 2017, unfortunately he’d already sold them but he said I’ll keep you in mind if any pop up,” Svensen said.

“About a month later a got a call from him saying he had a giveaway and would I be interested, without hesitating I said send him up.

“We’d had some luck with giveaways in the past and worst-case scenario if they couldn’t run we’d keep them as pets.

“Red Jamie arrived and we couldn’t believe our luck, just his attitude and demeanour were beautiful, after a few starts we thought we might have something here and after 125 starts and over $35,000 we’re still thanking George for sending him our way.”

The dog has spent his entire career at Rockhampton after a modest start running into Best 8 and Free For All company week-in week-out.

“It took him a little while to find his feet as a race dog, I think it was about 10 starts to win his maiden and then another few of win his Novice, but then he really exploded and got through his grades really quickly and was racing in Best 8 and Free For All company ever since,” Svensen said.

“He’s been an amazing dog injury-wise; he’s had a couple of little spells in his career but no serious injuries which is pretty amazing considering he’s been racing the best dogs up here for more than two years.

“His dead heat last start was the first time he’d dropped from Best 8 to Grade Four company and I think he took offence to it coming out and dead heating for the win, he’ll be straight back up to Free For All company now.”

Svensen has been a lifelong trainer balancing his commitments with full-time work, in the past he would venture north to Townsville Or south to Bundaberg to race, but Rockhampton has always been home.

“I’ve been training dogs for over 40 years at Rockhampton, I used to have some pretty big numbers but just have the two in work at the moment in Red Jamie and another dog Kinate we got from South Australia earlier this year,” he said.

“When I had more numbers I used to visit some of the other northern tracks but when you’ve got a dog like Red Jamie that just turns up and tries his hardest at Rockhampton every week I don’t see much point in taking him anywhere else.

“We get a lot of dogs sent up here whether it be from Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne who think they’re going to come to Rockhampton and get an easy kill, but the racing is going from strength to strength up here and you always like beating those dogs on your home track.”

Red Jamie has been a shining light for Svensen through his illness, with the trainer always getting a kick out of seeing him run and hopefully now back on his feet he’s looking forward to getting the four-and-a-half year old back to his best.

“Having a dog like Red Jamie has really kept me going through all the chemotherapy and tough times in the last six months,” Svensen said.

“He’s a dog that trains himself, I’ve only been able to do a little bit here and there with him at home and haven’t been able to handle him at the track, but nothing phases him.

“He’s been doing it for so long, he goes out there and does it on muscle memory.

“He’s four-and-a-half years old but I don’t see him slowing down, back up into top grade will be tough but now that my health is a little better I’m looking forward to spending some time with him and getting him back to his best.”

As much as Svensen is looking forward to getting back to his own training career, he’s just as excited about his daughter Kelly’s future.

“It definitely makes you proud to see your daughter succeeding in something that we both really fell in love with,” Svensen said.

“To have her grow up with greyhounds and see what the industry is like and decide that’s something she’d like to do tells me it wasn’t just work, it was fun growing up too.

“She’ll be training long after me, I can’t wait to sit back and see what she can achieve because she’s already on the right path.”