For Hastings “hobby” breeders and trainers, Victor and Carol Gay, the road to Healesville has recently been paved with success.
Their 100 plus trips to Healesville over the past year or so has seen Vic amass 30+ wins, with their star performer, the ever-consistent Boes Bounty, notching 12 victories and more than 20 placings so far in an impressive career.
What has been most rewarding for the Hastings couple, is that their success has come about from a litter they bred themselves in 2018, by Blazin’ Bomber out of Hot Patootie.
For Vic and Carol, it’s as good as winning a Melbourne Cup.
“We have four girls and a boy (currently racing) in this litter, and they were hopeless at going around corners, so we thought we’ll take them up to Healesville and give them a bit of a go and see if we could improve their box manners and try them in a straight line,” Vic said.
“And they turned out to be bloody good litter – you just can’t believe how lucky we are with this mating.”
In 2019 Vic had just two wins, so when 2020 came around they had just got this litter firing when COVID-19 hit. Vic then decided to start running at Healesville because they had shown some promise.
Their current litter of four “girls” – Boes Rose, Boes Reward, Boes Bounty and Boes Bambino and “the boy”, Boes Bandit, race almost exclusively at Healesville.
“This is our last litter, we’re definitely not going to breed again, so this has turned out to be a Cinderella story,” Vic said.
The Gays have been in the business for more than 30 years but restrict their three-hectare property in Boes Road, Hastings, to one litter every three years and race only from the existing dogs.
Vic says the family, with their two sons, Warren and Adrian, got in greyhound breeding and racing when Adrian bought a greyhound while he was still at tech school. And that’s what got Carol hooked on the sport.
“Considering we race only one litter, not like a lot of the trainers who can draw from a larger pool of dogs – we’re over the moon,” Vic said.
“We really enjoy going to Healesville, we call it The Park because it’s such a marvellous venue and we have met such a great group of new friends from all over the state. We will definitely continue to run at Healesville.”
And the wins have been made even more special by the fact that son Warren is currently living at home with his parents and helps on a daily basis, while Adrian walks all the dogs every Sunday as well as helping out with all the chores that go with keeping a family operation ship shape.
Warragul and Cranbourne are the Gay’s home tracks, while Vic says he is looking forward to the opening of the new ‘J-Curve’ track at Traralgon later this year.
Vic said the family had started racing at Traralgon all those years ago, and he was keen to see what the club’s innovative new track, with its world-first long straight and gentle curve, has to offer.
“I’m looking forward to it opening as it will suit dogs like ours, which struggle with bends, but are used to straight runs,” he said.
*This article was written by Tony Homfray
WATCH: Boes Bounty (2) wins a thriller over favourite She’s A Charm (1) at Healesville in June.
