NOBLE PARK NEWS

RED ACES WINS - Group 2 Vince Curry Maiden (520m) Ipswich 2008 By DAVID BRASCH

TAKE one look at 53-year-old Mick Boody and you’ll immediately think he is a wisened old jockey … and you would be pretty close to the mark. But in fact, Mick is a Group winning greyhound breeder and trainer, having been thrust into the national spotlight with the victory of Red Aces (November Fury-Dimple’s Choice) in the Group 2 Vince Curry Maiden at Ipswich. It’s a time-honoured series, one of the toughest in the land, and has been won by such greats as Just The Best and Token Prince just to name a few. Jockey-like Mick might be short in stature but he’s nuggety and tough and never short of an opinion. He’s got that way from a lifetime in racing. He was riding trackwork when he was 10 and breaking in thoroughbreds when he was 14. His dad Desmond did just the same around the thoroughbred tracks of Brisbane. Des was a also greyhound trainer and youthful Mick watched and learned from his dad. “I worked for Bruce McLachlan, Eric Kirwan, Henry Davis, Danny Duke, riding work and breaking in their young horses,” Mick told The Journal. He also dabbled in training himself, battling away with $1500 thoroughbreds winning a few, losing a few. “About 20 years ago when John Hawkes and Gai Waterhouse and Bart Cummings and the likes all decided to have stables in Brisbane, Amber and I decided we would head north,” said Mick. They settled on Mackay. Mick’s best horse was Sir Ovett who failed to earn prizemoney only four times in 26 starts and broke the track record when winning the Ingham Gold Cup. He also ran second in the Cairns Amateur Cup. “My jockey got into trouble because he reckoned we had won the Cairns Amateur Cup. The photo finish didn’t work and during an argument, he decked someone. A club official, I think.” Mick gave horses away in the late 1990s and took up training greyhounds. He had instant success. Amby’s Love won a Bundaberg and Rockhampton Cup a few years ago and Izy Fast proved himself a brilliant sprinter. Mick and Amber decided the big smoke was for them so they headed back home. Two years ago they moved south to take over Noble Park where they bred and reared and trained a team of dogs. Among those to come with him was a bitch called Dimple’s Choice a daughter of Nujooloo-Little Miss Agro who had been a handy galloper for Mick in Mackay winning nine races but who suffered from not having enough races over longer distances. “She was a litter sister to Dream Return who won quite a few 600m races at Albion Park for Tom Noble,” said Mick. Dimple’s Choice had trialled 25.90 around Ipswich’s 431m just after breaking in to show her potential. “I was inexperienced in dogs and while she sprinted well early in her career I didn’t pick that she was crying out for more distance until later,” said Mick. “I’d race her first-up over 300m in Mackay and she would ping out while fresh and win. But by her next start she would be slow out and running on. I’d think there was something wrong. “That was her career.” Mick put her to November Fury not long after he arrived at Noble Park and she produced a litter of pups all of which today show potential. Littermate Agrodun was third in the John Young Memorial at the Gold Coast in December last year. In August 2007, Mick and Amber decided to leave Noble Park. “We had a huge kennel of dogs and pups and really had nowhere to go,” said Mick. “That’s when Mal and Kym Dawson came to our rescue. They had just taken over a property at Mt Forbes and invited us to share the property.  “None of this would be possible but for Mal and Kym.” Mal and Mick are a partnership with almost 100 dogs on the property. Of those 12 are in training for Mick and he has another 30 up to breaking in stage. Red Aces always showed more than his fair share of ability, breaking in the best of the litter and running a slick 25.30 over 431m around Ipswich as a pup. He then hurt a shoulder muscle and eventually it forced him off the track. It was a winning move … a Vince Curry winning move. “There was no deliberate plan to keep him for the Vince Curry,” said Mick. The injury simply forced the dog out and by the time he was back in work, the Vince Curry was fast looming. Mick started six dogs in the qualifying heats and all went through. He eventually ran two finalists, Shock And Awe finishing seventh behind his kennelmate. Mal Dawson had the pick of the pair on race night to lead to the boxes and went for Shock And Awe. “I thought he could win it,” said Mal. The Boody’s son Dustin owns Red Aces. Dustin, 29, still lives in Mackay where he is a used car buyer for a local car yard. Mick has not been tempted to breed with dimple’s Choice since the November Fury litter preferring to see how that litter races before making a decision on her future. “Rob Gudgeon has decided to take her on a pup deal,” said Mick. “He’s looking at either Pure Octane or Black Enforcer to go to with her next time she is on season.” Ask Mick and Amber back in August when they virtually had nowhere to live but a team of dogs to live with if they envisaged winning a Vince Curry. “No way,” admitted Mick. “Even a couple of weeks before the final I was talking myself out of any chance I had.” But Red Aces turned that around. He quickly got onto the rails from his three box and was pushing up inside leader Conjure Love in the back straight. Once in front on the home bend he raced away to win easily. Lady Moscato rattled home to get second for Bob Wright owner Arthur Langham. Conjure Love gave owner Brendan Rouse and trainer Greg Lennon a great sight when she led to the back and then fought on gamely for third. She is royally bred being out of former Group 1 winner Mint Mojo.

REGENCY BOY'S MACKAY CUP Courtesy David Brash (GRAQ Journal) 7 May, 2007.

RANK outsider Regency Boy defied his price with an effortless victory in Monday's Mackay Cup (456m). Raced by Robert Gudgeon of Ipswich and trained by former Mackay identity Mick Boody, Regency Boy (Lindale Blue-Landau Court) scored by five and a quarter lengths. He downed luckless Morton Bird with a length and a quarter to Design Assassin in third. The winner started at 9-1 after he had been beaten three lengths into second in his heat last Thursday night by Farmor Torque. But Boody, now based at Churchable, was confident his dog could win and told Gudgeon that. "The four heat winnere were all drawn next to each other and I told Robert I was expecting a bit of trouble around them," said Boody. That's exactly how the race went. Windmill Lass led into the back straight but Regency Boy swept past her 150m after the start and raced right away in the straight to win easily. Boody and wife Amber have been in greyhound racing since 1999. They had their first Mackay Cup runner a year later when Speed You Need was third. "We've tried about seven times to win this race, and with some very good dogs like Izy Fast and Amby's Love, without success until today," he said. "My dog made his own luck." It was Regency Boy's fourth race win but he has also run seven placings in his short career. Boody gave the dog experience on the Mackay track when he took him north for a Young Guns series some weeks ago. "Amber rang me straight after the race, but she was so happy she was crying so much she couldn't stay on the phone," said Mick.

TOP TALKER WINS THE MACKAY G.R.C. MAIDEN 1000.

'IZY FAST'  -  GREYHOUND OF THE YEAR 2005 AT IPSWICH.

'Izy Fast' is the IPSWICH GREYHOUND OF THE YEAR. It was great to see him achieve the award, as he was leading in the point score for a long time then we could not get a race for him at Ipswich as they did not have a top grade race for over two months of racing either on Tuesdays or Wednesdays .