Olsen clan keep it in the family in annual memorial race

By Jordan Gerrans

The Robert Olsen Memorial race will stay in the family for 2024.

The annual race for maiden greyhounds has been run in North Queensland for the past eight years following the passing of two-time Townsville Cup-winning dog man Robert Olsen.

The Final was contested on Tuesday afternoon with unbeaten bitch Mini Coin Babe scoring by seven lengths in a dominant display.

Mini Coin Babe is trained by Robert’s brother Glen Olsen and owned by his niece Louise Olsen.

The black bitch won her heat late last month in strong fashion and bettered her time in the Final – scoring in 21.82 seconds – over the 380 metre trip.

Robert’s widow Judy has stayed involved with the code in North Queensland after her husband’s passing following a battle with cancer and was on hand on Tuesday afternoon to present the annual prize.

“Our son and daughter were hopeful of being there at the track this week but they could not make it this time,” Judy said.

“But, that was ok as I was there for it. It is good to keep running the race and the club do a good job of it all.”

Following Robert’s passing, Judy opted to no longer prepare a team of greyhounds as she says it was their hobby and she did not want to do it alone.

To stay connected to the sport that the family loves, Judy now makes all the winning presentation rugs for the Townsville Greyhound Racing Club, including the one that was handed out on Tuesday for her late husband’s race.

Jumping from the four alley and starting as the favourite for the annual maiden series, Mini Coin Babe began smartly and led in the opening stages.

She was not headed from there on.

Mini Coin Babe’s victory was the first leg of a winning double for the Nome-based Glen as Helsinki Rico won the third event of the program from Townsville.

Helsinki Rico is Mini Coin Babe’s litter brother and won at his first attempt at the 498 metre trip. 

Unbeaten in two career starts, Judy thinks Glen has a promising dog in the making with the daughter of Bernardo.

“She is only little the winner, she is not very big at all,” Judy said.

“It is good to see Glen having a promising dog like this so hopefully she will pick it up and away she goes.

“She has won from an outside box and in the middle, as well, so it looks like she will be ok.”

Owner Louise could not make it to the track on Tuesday as she was busy working but listened in on the radio as she was driving around Townsville in her job.

“We were pretty happy about it all,” the owner said.

“She did really well for us, we were quite happy with her performance. Hopefully she can go on with it from here. It is good to keep it in the family.”

It was the second time Glen had won the race named after his late brother.

He claimed the inaugural event in 2017 with a dog named Whatta Pass.

Glen's kennel quinellad the first running of the race with Brother Rob running second - a dog named after the late Robert. 

The late Robert and Judy claimed two Townsville Cups earlier in their career in the sport.

Owey won the 2006 edition while Michaelangelo claimed the feature prize in 1992.

They were also successful further north in a Cairns Cup, as well.

“We had a lot of good luck with the dogs we had,” Judy said.

“We won a few Derbies and other races as well as the Cups.”

The Robert Olsen Memorial event is not the only event named after the family in NQ.

The Judge Family Maiden was previously run around the same time of the Townsville Cup every year before the Judge family approached Judy and the Olsen family took over the naming rights of the series.

Also at Townsville on Tuesday afternoon, local trainer Bobbie-Jean Chaffey had a day out – preparing four winners from the dozen races on the program.