Leanne Hall reflects on Extra Malt's journey from Ipswich Puppy Auction

By Jordan Gerrans

Trainer Leanne Hall still thinks someone was watching over her kennel the day the pup that became Extra Malt went through the Ipswich Puppy Auction.

Hall and her husband Graham, also a top trainer in Queensland, bred Extra Malt from a Paw Licking and It Gets Better litter, alongside two sisters, who would also go through the auction before they turned one year of age. 

Through the bidding process, the young dogs did not get anywhere near the price the Halls had hoped, so instead of selling the greyhounds cheap, they came back to their kennel.

The Marburg-based greyhound racing team are still smiling about that decision, with the white and black bitch winning 16 of her 34 career starts, including the Group 3 $40,000 Ipswich Auction Series Final earlier this year.

A new set of pups are getting ready to go through the process with the aim to uncover the next star of Queensland racing at the Ipswich Puppy Auction on Sunday October 10.

Hall reflected on Extra Malt’s amazing journey earlier this week, going from unwanted to one of the stars of greyhound racing in the Sunshine State.

“Extra Malt, we bred them and put them in the auction and were going to sell them, but we did not get what we wanted so we bought them back, which was very lucky for us,” Hall said.

“We went from there. We had a lot of pups that we thought we would sell some of them, but we could have sold the wrong ones.

“Luck was on our side I tell you; someone was watching us that day. Graham was lucky to buy her back with the last bid - that was it.”

The Ipswich Puppy Auction for 2021 will have a different feel to previous years with changes to the structure of the sales hoping to bring in new owners to the industry.

As the Halls did with Extra Malt, many breeders will buy their own pups at the only puppy auction in Queensland.

With over 120 pups nominated for the auction this year, upwards of 60 have already been purchased back by their breeders, and therefore will be eligible for the Ipswich Auction Series Final races, with 42 set to go through the auction as “genuine sales”.

“The fact that we have 42 for genuine sale is great,” Ipswich Greyhound Racing Club Secretary Di O'Donnell said. 

“There used to be a lot of buy backs with only around 20 or so being genuinely sold as an auction.

“It is a different concept this year, we will give it a try and see how it goes.

“The others are buy backs, which will be eligible for the races, but they had to pay a specific amount to be involved in the race, as a buy back.

“Being with COVID, it seemed sensible to do that as NSW breeders could actually nominate but did not need to physically bring the dog up.

“We will just have the 42 there that are genuinely for sale.”

The 2021 Catalogue is now available for the Ipswich Puppy Auction with hard copies also available at the Club and available for sale on the day.

The changes to the Ipswich Puppy Auction for this year are aimed to bring new owners into the greyhound industry.

“What we try and do is encourage the public to come and actually syndicate a dog, a pup,” O'Donnell said.

“There is a few particularly nicely bred pups this year.”

The Hall kennel are looking forward to next month’s auction, noting they may be active buyers.

“We might, our son and a few fellas are looking to buy a dog,” Hall said.

“Graham has a few fellas that have asked him to buy a dog for them, we will be up there having a look and if there is anything that Graham thinks is all right, he will bid for it.”

Pups sold at the auction will be eligible for the Ipswich Auction Series of races, including the $40,000 feature Ipswich Puppy Auction feature over 520 metres and the $14,000 sprint 431-metre race, which was last won by John Catton’s Little Byrnes.