Townsville record breaker set for Albion debut

By Alex Nolan

Trainer Tony Parker hopes recent Townsville track-record breaker Paulie Walnuts can continue to develop from an exceptionally fast dog into a genuine “race dog”, as he eyes a Fifth Grade heat over 520m at Albion Park on Monday. 

Paulie Walnuts set a new Townsville 380-metre time benchmark of 21.41 seconds when he recorded an 11.5 length demolition of his rivals on January 18, taking his career record to six wins from eight starts.  

Parker has come to Brisbane with four dogs, led by Spritely Bro – trained by his dad Henry Parker – who unfortunately fell in last Thursday’s Country Cup Final at Albion Park.

The team will be hoping for better luck when Paulie Walnuts makes his Albion Park debut from box four in Race 7.

“He’s found a pretty tough race, although having said that, if he gets an early split like he did in his trial then he’ll be hard to beat,” Parker said.

“He went a bit wide on the first bend so I’m expecting him to improve a little bit, especially his second sectional … it will be the run home that may find him out.”

Paulie Walnuts did get a chance to prove himself at 500+ metres at Rockhampton late last year but was severely checked on jumping and took no competitive part in the race.

“That was a forget run … but it hasn’t affected him at all,” Parker said.

“At his next two runs (over 380m at Townsville) he went close to the track-record and then broke it at his last start."

Parker had already developed a healthy opinion of Paulie Walnuts before the son of Fernando Bale had made his racetrack debut. 

“When he had his first trial over 380 (metres) he went 21.78 and we said ‘OK this fella is pretty handy’," he said.

“His slips were decent as well but you just don’t know how they’ll go in a field.

“Having speed is one thing but they have to be a race dog.

“If you have speed and a race dog, you know you have a handy one.

“He hasn’t proven himself 100% that he’s a race dog, but we’ll see.”

Parker is, however, buoyed by a hint from champion trainer Tony Brett that he’d be willing to make some room in his kennel for a greyhound like Paulie Walnuts.

“We’ve been staying with Tony and he’s been really good and very helpful,” Parker said.

“Tony tends to make room for the good ones, but I would like to hold onto (Paulie Walnuts) for as long as I can. More to prove to myself that I can get him going.”

Parker, who is in-charge of an 18-strong kennel, said there was plenty of options closer to home for Paulie Walnuts throughout the year.

“There’s obviously the Young Guns and the Cup, but that’s still a long way away,” he said.

“We could also have a look at the Rocky Cup but then I look at the dogs in Tony (Brett’s) kennel and think ‘we’re probably going to be racing them’.

“We’ll take it one race at a time. One little slip-up can bring everything undone. You need to a look ahead but you can’t lock anything in.”

Parker also has Jackie Chiles lining up in Race 9 at Albion Park on Monday.