White Mack races for more than money in Golden Chase heats

By Pat McLeod

There will be more than money and prestige riding on the shoulders of striking speedster White Mack in a busy afternoon of Golden Chase Sprint heats at Ipswich on Friday.

The Bob Higgs-trained Aussie Infrared and Rhyno's Kiss chaser will jump from box seven in the eighth of 10 heats in the prestigious feature, which is only open to graduates of the Ipswich Auction.

For Higgs it is his chance to continue to honour the memory of his good mate and respected Fraser Coast greyhound owner and trainer Allen Kelly.

“This series is special because Allen owned and trained this dog before he passed away in late October last year,” Higgs explains.

“Now it is owned by his daughter Deb, who I have known since she was about two years old. I rate the dog, very much so. And, of course I would love to see him do well in this series, especially for Deb. It would be a nice touch if he did win in on Friday.”

Higgs, who is based on 10 acres at Coominya in the Somerset Region, west of Brisbane, actually bred the litter, but as had happened so many times in the past, sent a couple of the pups up to Kelly, who lived at Howard, just north of Maryborough.

One of the pups was White Mack, who Kelly finished breaking in and then began racing him, for one win from three starts at Bundaberg.

“Unfortunately, Allen became unwell and the dog came back to me to train,” Higgs recalls.

“His first start for me was over 288 metres at Ipswich on October 24 last year. By that time Allen was in hospital in Brisbane.

“He just wanted to see the dog race and he did from his hospital bed. White Mack won that day and apparently Allen was so happy. Just five days later he passed away.”

Higgs’ and Kelly’s friendship traces back to 1979 when the pair met through greyhound racing in Mount Isa.

“I worked for the State Government in 'The Isa' from 1973 to 1985,” Higgs said. 

“I became a licensed trainer there in 1979 and Allen was the number one member at the Mount Isa greyhounds.

“He was a driving force for the club there and we got on well.”

The friendship remained over the years as both men found their way to Queensland coastal regions, Higgs originally to Brisbane and then to Coominya and Kelly to the Fraser Coast.

“Over the years I have sent plenty of dogs to Allen and he trained a lot of winners from them,” Higgs said. 

“In fact, one of them was his most successful dog Savuro, who was named after champion Mount Isa rugby league winger Noah Savuro.”

Higgs says the seven box ‘isn’t likely to be an issue’ on Friday and likes his dog’s chances.

“On form, he should do well,” Higgs said.

“Hopefully he can cross safely and go on from there.

“He is a very good dog, very strong.

“Once he gets in front, well it will take a very good dog to run him down.”

Higgs also has White Mack’s litter brother Aussie Al in Friday’s last heat and there are also two other littermates – Aussie Sands (trained by Thomas Weldon in heat five) and Crystal Echoes (trained by Anita Watts in heat six) – in the Golden Chase Sprint heats.

The 431 metre series began in 2006, wasn’t raced from 2010, then resumed in 2020.

Qualifiers from the heats (first three from each of the 10 heats plus the fastest two fourth-placed dogs), will progress to the semi-finals on Friday, February 21, with the $12,000-to-the-winner decider on Saturday, March 1.

The last two winners of this series were quality Group dogs Magistrate (2023) and Kia Kaha (2024).