Townsville's Casey finds his calling in greyhound game

By Jordan Gerrans

Enthusiastic teenage dog man Jake Casey has the winning taste and now he wants more.

The North Queensland-based industry youngster prepared his maiden victory as a trainer late last week when Verruckt landed the spoils at Townsville.

It has been a big week for the up-and-coming conditioner as he celebrated his 19^th birthday on Monday.

Casey comes from good stock in the greyhound game as his mother Bobbie-Jean Chaffey has developed her team into one of the leading operations in the northern city.

Casey has learnt the tricks of the trade under Chaffey throughout his teenage years, helping out around her kennel, before taking out his own licence in recent months.

He has also been a regular at the track, handling and boxing greyhounds for his family's kennel.

Verruckt had his first couple of race starts for the Chaffey kennel before Casey – who owns and now trains the dog – took him under his fledging racing banner.

After two previous starts for Casey, the blue fawn chaser put it all together on Friday of last week over 380 metres in 22.42 seconds. 

“It felt good, I was happy,” Casey said about the breakthrough winner.

“It gave me a taste of what is to come hopefully. He has improved with every start he has had.

“He is not even two years old yet so there is plenty of time with him hopefully.”

Casey prepares his small team at Stuart in NQ.

The racing family purchased the dog from Victoria and he has been a serious work in progress for Casey.

Verruckt was beaten by almost a combined 30 lengths in his first two career starts.

Since then, he has slowly improved and was only beaten by two lengths in his first two starts for Casey.

From the treasured inside alley on Friday, Verruckt scored and the rookie trainer is thinking a step up in distance is in order for the son of Beast Unleashed.

“He is a good little dog that chases hard, he just needs to work on his box manners, which I am working on at home as much as I can,” the trainer and owner said.

“But, he has improved with every run and trial for me.

“I have been working him up, getting him ready for the 500 metres – that is my plan for him.

“Looking at his run the other day, he really beat them with speed and then had a second crack on that home turn and really pulled away.

“He beat them by more than three lengths in the end.

“That is what I wanted to see and we will now go to the 498 metres.”

Speaking last month during the Townsville Cup carnival in NQ, Chaffey flagged the likelihood her son was soon to enter the training ranks and backed him to make an immediate impact.

“It is good for him and us to have a passion together, to be able to share it with my son,” Chaffey said.

“He is keen to keep it going. He has been helping us out for the past couple of years.”

Casey just has Verruckt in his kennel at the moment and he is keen to increase the numbers in his team to around five in the coming months.

The keen dog man says he is interested in bringing young dogs into his kennel.

“I love it and I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t like it,” he said of his burgeoning training career.

“I have been doing it since I was 15 years old, just helping around the place and I have got more into it as I have got older.

“It is now and every day thing. It is all I like and all I know now – dogs.”

Verruckt is likely to race at Townsville this Friday in a novice contest before stepping up to 498 metres in the near future.

The Chaffey kennel are having another strong year in NQ, registering 113 winners so far this campaign as of Monday morning.