Growing Partland kennel with three strong NQ Cup chances

By Jordan Gerrans

The old adage goes: If you build it; they will come.

That saying rings true around the racing kennel of Townsville’s Mark Partland.

Partland has been around the code in North Queensland for some time but has only been training properly on his own for around four years.

Previously he owned greyhounds that were prepared by leading local trainer Bradley Belford.

In those four years, the majority of the time was spent training out of his backyard.

In the last 12 months, Mark and his wife Louise have purchased 20 acres and quickly established their own training operation.

With the feature North Queensland Cup to be run on Tuesday evening at the Showgrounds track, the Partlands head towards the event with three from their team.

“It is nice to have some good cattle,” Mark said on Monday morning.

The Partlands juggle their racing team of dogs as well as running a business in the northern city.

After around a year at their new larger training facility, Mark says they are starting to taste the fruits of their labour.

“We have moved out, set it up from a blank canvas to establish ourselves,” he said.

“We have gone from training out of a backyard to now having some serious facilities in place with a good size kennel.

“It makes a difference. I have some nice cattle at the moment.”

The industry is starting to take notice as well with the Partlands being sent dogs from South East Queensland to train more so than they were before.

That was underlined by the performance of Cool Bananas on Friday.

Previously prepared in SEQ, Cool Bananas ran home in a best of the program 28.48 seconds in just his fourth start in Townsville.

Zabdon Ferrari holds the track record mark at 28.33 seconds at the venue.

It is a three-strong NQ Cup tilt for the Partland kennel: Bag The Cash, Stripey Two and Three Tries.

Stripey Two and Three Tries are brothers from an Orson Allen and Slick Raven litter.

As a pair they have only combined for 29 starts and quickly found themselves in a big-time Listed Final against seasoned 498 metre dogs.

They have 11 victories already recorded with Three Tries recording his latest triumph in a hear of the NQ Cup series last Tuesday evening in 28.85 seconds.

“They are two years old in the next few weeks and they have shown a lot of promise,” the trainer said.

“They are good young dogs and I think they will get better and better as they are only young when they mature a bit.

“The other one – Bag The Cash – was in last week for the first time since the Townsville Cup series after having some toe issues.

“It is a good having three promising young dogs in a good kennel at the moment.”

The Partlands have owned dogs who have won big races in previous years but they have not grabbed any feature silverware since Mark began training.

The market suggests experienced North Queensland trainer Danny Preh and his classy Plum Tuckered will be hard to hold out in the Cup Final after the chaser saluted in the first of four heats in 28.36 seconds just outside Zabdon Ferrari’s track record mark of 28.33 seconds last week. 

Plum Tuckered has drawn four for the Final, which could be an awkward beginning spot after she scorched the track from the red last week.

Mark Partland thinks that if Plum Tuckered gets a clear run, then the rest of the field will be in big trouble.

Bag The Cash (box five), Stripey Two (box seven) and Three Tries (box one) will be flying the Partland flag in the $24,000 event.

Because of the box draw, Three Tries is probably the kennel’s ‘number one seed’, the trainer believes.

“I was happy with the way they went in the heats, I thought the two brothers went exceptionally well,” the Townsville dog man said.

“That was Stripey Two’s first look over the distance and I can only see him improving, he is the stronger of the two but in saying that Three Tries has drawn the one for the Final.

“There is not much between them. I do not think there is much between them as last week’s times suggested.

“Three Tries is probably the pick of the three but Stripey Two’s run last week in the heat was probably better than what it showed on paper.”