Cynthia has found the formula to get her through the tough times

By Pat McLeod

Owner-trainer Cynthia Suttle doesn’t expect Minter Formula to win at Capalaba on Sunday, because maybe the weight of emotion will prove too much.

‘Dicky’ (Minter Formula) has found a place in Suttle’s heart and a ‘forever’ bed in her kennel, despite being a part of the respected industry figure’s life for just a year.

“When he retires he will live out his life with me,” she said.

“He means too much to me.”

Suttle’s emotional rollercoaster with Minter Formula, the dog she describes as a ‘real pain in the bum’, began this time last year, at the Grafton Winter Carnival.

“Dave (Schmidt, her long-time friend and kennel support) was at the Grafton carnival, an event that I have missed just three times in about 40 years, and told me that Minter Formula was for sale,” she explains.

“He asked what I thought the dog would be worth. I told him, and next thing I had bought him.

“I thought he had ability. I didn’t have many race dogs at the time and I am always on the lookout for a good buy.

“I think he had about 19 starts by then for a couple of wins.

“Since he came to my kennel he has done really well and progressed through the grades quite quickly.”

In fact, in the 12 months since coming into Suttle’s care ‘Dicky’ has excelled – 56 starts for 19 wins and 17 placings.

And despite some annoying traits, he ‘won over’ both Suttle and Schmidt.

“He has an obsession with food and work,” Suttle says.

“If he isn’t the first to get fed, he barks until he is fed. The same with when we work the dogs. If he isn’t the first, then the barking starts.

“I say to him quite often, ‘Dicky, it is lucky you have ability, because you are a pain in the bum’.

“Everything else about him are the traits of a good dog.

“Apart from his obsessions he is a very good kennel dog and one of the best travelers I've had.”

Minter Formula has also come at a time when Suttle has needed a lift.

Almost six months ago her brother, Jamie Lowrie, who had been helping out at her kennels at Redland Bay, south-east of Brisbane, passed away.

He and Suttle were close.

Around the same time Schmidt was diagnosed with leukaemia. He passed away on July 23, aged 76.

“Dave loved Dicky. Not only was Dave the reason I bought the dog in the first place, he and Dicky got on so well,” she said.

“I actually put a photo of Minter Formula on his coffin. He loved the dog.

“On the Thursday night before he passed away, he asked me, ‘What is going to happen to Dicky?’

“He knew that Dicky wouldn't be able to be rehomed because he is too prey driven.

“I said, ‘Don't worry about Dicky I will have him desexed and I will keep him with me. He will live out his life with me.’

“On the Tuesday after Dave had passed away Minter Formula raced at Ipswich (a Best 8 over 431m).

“I don't normally get very emotional behind the boxes, but mid-race I could see him start to move through the field, and I started to say to myself go ‘Go Dicky’, but by the end of the race I was yelling out, ‘Go Dicky go! Do it for Dave’.

“And when he won, every one of the trainers at the boxes were so happy that he had won.

“They all gave me a hug and I was crying.”

This Sunday in a Best 8 up the Capalaba 366m straight, Suttle isn’t confident of victory.

“It will be a hard race with the likes of That’s Hot (Jedda Cutlack),” said Suttle.

“But it is a track that Dave and I considered our favourite track and I love to take my dogs there for a change.

“I have already spoken to the Capalaba club about having a race named after Dave over the next couple of months.

“I think Dicky is a good place chance on Sunday, but if he was to win, I think that might only be through some divine intervention.”

Suttle, who was this year awarded the prestigious Women In Racing Award at the Queensland Greyhound Awards, admits that the recent years have been tough for her since her husband Des passed away in 2021.

“Sometimes lately I have been in a very dark place,” she says.

“Luckily, I have a lot of nice friends and a good family behind me.

“But it is the dogs, like Minter Formula, that are the reason I get up each morning.”