Meet greyhound racing’s Clancy of the Overflow, Ian Gilders, and his ‘bush hero’, Billy Creek.
Gilders, 71, hopes to write his own ‘bush ballad’ with Billy Creek in the inaugural $1.145m TAB The Phoenix (525m) at The Meadows on Saturday night.
Based at Beryl in the Central West region of NSW, around 300km from Sydney, Gilders has only been involved in the sport for five years and Billy Creek is a member of the only litter he has bred.
Naturally, Gilders and Billy Creek – a winner of 10 races from 22 starts – are already the ‘Cinderella’ story of the world’s only greyhound slot race which carries a $750,000 winner’s cheque.
In his younger days, Gilders worked in abattoirs in Bourke, Orange and Byron Bay before driving trucks and road trains for 30 years while living in the Goulburn Valley.
Later, he and wife Joy did the ‘Big Lap’ in a Mazda BT-50 with caravan in tow. It was a seven-year work/pleasure sojourn to most parts of Australia.
“We saw what we wanted to see then retired and bought a 24-acre property just to get out town,” Gilders quipped. “My wife said, ‘the coast or the mountains’ and I went for the latter.”
Then, early in 2016, Gilders’ brother David bred a litter – one of which raced as Midnight Jayne for Ian and is Billy Creek’s dam.
Champion Forbes trainer Ray Smith trained Midnight Jayne and Billy Creek’s sire, Brad Hill Billy – a four-time G1 finalist which finished second in the 2016 Golden Easter Egg.
“Ray wanted to buy her after noticing her racing at Bathurst and Dubbo,” Gilders said. “I didn’t want to sell her as she’s named after one of my granddaughters, so I asked him if he would like to train her.”
Gilders says he’ll keep Billy Creek for a $125,000 to-the-winner Dubbo 600m series in March and then “more than likely” transfer him to Smith.
Billy Creek booked a berth to the race of his life after taking out the NSW GBOTA’s ‘Flight to the Phoenix’.
