EXPERIENCED trainer Lynden Nichols is no stranger to producing doubles at Tasmanian race meetings but his latest haul has a twist.
Nichols prepared litter siblings Hifive Marsha and her brother Amazing Albert to win consecutive races at Tattersall’s Park in Hobart last week.
However the twist was not that they are related but that Hifive Marsha was only on loan to Nichols while her regular trainer Terry Ackerly is enjoying a holiday in Western Australia.
Hifive Marsha Give Me Five-Mountain Brook) was the first leg of the double and she did it in style.
She began only fairly from box four and had more than half the field ahead of him nearing the top turn.
But when the favourite Rise Of Taj, wearing the black vest, tried to cross down to the rail he was baulked and then dragged down from behind that caused a chain reaction back in the field.
This allowed Hifive Marsha to scoot through along the rail and she set sail after the leader Private Show.
Hifive Marsha moved alongside the leader at the top of the straight and forged clear and she had plenty in reserve to hold out Hellyeah Oliver with Private Show hanging on for third.
It was Hifive Marsha’s second win on the track but her fifth overall from 35 starts.
It was almost the direct opposite scenario with Amazing Albert’s win.
The dog also wore the blue vest but he flew the lids and had three lengths on his rivals by the time they reached the 340-metre boxes and he was five ahead turning for home.
Amazing Albert hit the line well clear of the fast-finishing Costa with Lake Trasmere a close-up third.
Nichols has always trained Amazing Albert, although both dogs are owned by Nichols’ life partner Carol Nash who bred the litter.
“It was great to get a double with the brother and sister and even though I’m only looking after Hifive Marsha I’ll take the double,” Nichols said,
“It is always good to get any win in Hobart because it is not a track that has been very kind to me in the past.”
“But if you’ve got a dog that has good manners you can usually pick up your lower grade wins on that track without too much trouble,” he said.
Hifive Marsha had the breaks go her way and Nichols was appreciative of how that race panned out.
“I’m sure Amazing Albert has a bit more ability that Hifive Marsha but it is that he does very little wrong that is going to win him more races.”
“There was very little between them early on but that Hifive Marsha is not very quick out (of the boxes) she is always going to need a bit of luck and that’s what happed tonight,” he said.
“But in saying that she is a very strong little bitch and while she’s probably not bred for it, she may run 600 metres later on,” he said.
Amazing Albert has been a model of consistency winning six and being placed eight times from 20 starts prior to this latest win.
But at his start prior to last Thursday night’s event he fell heavily in a heat of the Minister’s Gift in Hobart and so hard to he hit the deck the dog was knocked out.
“The dog was knocked out cold so he couldn’t remember anything about the fall and that was a good thing.”
“He most likely got his dew claw caught in his muzzle and when you’re travelling at 60kph and only on three legs you’re going to go head over turkey.”
“But I took him back to Hobart a few days later and put him in a trial with two other dogs an he won by about 15 lengths going 26.25 seconds so he was very lucky to have taken no harm whatsoever from the fall.”
“I’ve never seen a fall like it because he rolled over and over many times and spun around a few times as well and how he didn’t break anything is quite amazing,” he said.
Amazing Albert certainly raced like a dog that was injury free last Thursday night.
He began like a shot from the boxes and was powerful over the final 100 metres and was looking to go around again when he ran into the catching pen.
“This dog looked the goods when he just a 12 months old and while we’ve had a few little issues to deal with along the way he is probably the best dog I’ve had in a long while.”
Nash and Nichols bred the litter from a bitch (Mountain Brook) that they raced a few years ago.
“We raced Mountain Brook and she won a dozen races and she had about 40 minor placings so she was a very consistent chaser,” he said.
Nichols was born in Tasmania and trained greyhounds when he was a teenager.
He trained Mersey Mist that won many feature races and represented Tasmania in a Fairchild’s National Distance Championship i9n the mid 1970s.
Nichols spent about 27 years living and working in Victoria as a bricklayer.
“We lived in Victoria for a long tome but the experience just confirmed to me that there’s no better place to live in Australia than Tasmania so I came home,” he said.
“I lived and worked in Central Victoria and for a lot of the time the temperature is around 40 degrees (Celsius).”
“I’m still a bricklayer but the climate is much more friendlier here in Tassie,” he said.
Nichols usually has about 10 dogs in his kennel at any one time at his property at Birralee, in Tasmania’s North-East region.
“I’ve got a small property with a small straight track but I rely on the walking machine a lot.”
“I came back to Tasmania just to do the dogs but that hasn’t happened yet,” he said.