Pat Lavis and Mincin’ Machine at Savill Lodge

An Insight into the Pat Lavis Racing Team
The dog racing bug infected Pat Lavis in the early 70’s when he went to look at the dogs in the Ballina Pound. He spotted a greyhound and set about rescuing the dog and organised to get his papers. The dog’s name was After Billy; he duly won his first start for Pat at Lismore by 8 lengths. His first thought; how easy is this. The journey began, he was hooked. The Lavis team is trained at Tregeagle just outside Lismore in Northern NSW and consequently the home tracks are Ladbroke Park Lismore, Queen Elizabeth Park Casino and the Grafton Greyhound Clubs track at Cranworth Street Grafton.

After being told a little while ago that he was “a half alright trainer but didn’t take on the metropolitan dogs”, he has started to travel to Albion Park on a regular basis. As he says “It’s the next step for Mincin’ Machine. I have been telling everyone for the last eight months that he was better than Western Dave his brother, he just needed to get a few more things right in his races”. So far he is very satisfied with the performance of all the team in Brisbane and will continue to travel north regularly.
When asked what’s the best dog he has raced he doesn’t hesitate in nominating Mincin’ Machine who has run the fastest 484m time at Casino since the conversion to sand and put in some big efforts at Albion Park. Pat says he is all dog being able to win from all boxes and having won over distances from 407m (22.84) at Grafton, up to 520m (29.79) at Albion Park. Another of the kennel stars from the past was Compassionate a bitch which held a track record at Casino and has been a good brood bitch for the Lavis’ producing dogs like Penthouse Doll and Bogan Miss. Both these bitch’s are now in the breeding kennels and have pups by Spring Gun and Magic Sprite.

Pat and team during his memorable night at Ladbrokes park winning six from six

Up until recently Pat has not travelled far from the Northern Rivers but has managed to win some of the best races in the area. He lists among his victories the Pop Northfield, Don Waldron, Beef Week Cup all at Casino and the Barry Walters at Grafton. He has made the final of the Grafton, Casino and Lismore Cups but to date has not secured a win. His plan is to attempt to change this part of history this year with plans afoot to run Mincin’ Machine in the Casino and Lismore Cups and then on to the Brisbane Cup in November. No doubt there will be some other handy dogs from the kennel also starting in some of these races; dogs like Western Dave and How Much.

Pups in the runs at Savill Lodge

Kennel hand Lynn Williams and upcoming litter at Savill Lodge

When asked how he rears and prepares his pups, Pat says the pups are reared tough. The litter stays together in the paddock where they learn to cope with the rough and tumble antics of their siblings. He says “this pays dividends when they get to race, they are already used to being bumped and are not likely let it worry them. They are fed plenty of meat and bones as well as kibble. We bring them in at about 14-16 months old where they spend a month getting used to the kennels and being handled a lot more. We start to give them a bit of work but if they are not ready they get a break for a month. They are not forced to do anything, it’s easier to create good habits than cure bad ones. The young dogs already know about chasing as they have been introduced to drags and squeakers as pups. It takes us about 3 months to have them broken in. Always be patient and be prepared to treat each dog as an individual ”. “Once they come into the race kennels we monitor their weights and work out the race weight that suits each dog. Some dogs race best a bit light, Sake Rocks came here from Sydney racing at 28kg. I have her down to 26.5kg now and her times have improved out of sight. Other dogs race best a little heavy so we work on what’s their preferred weight, they let you know with their times. Weight is important to me and I weigh the race dogs 3-5 times a week, even twice a day sometimes. If the dogs are racing at Albion they are weighed before they leave and then we weigh them on arrival. It would surprise you that some dogs can drop a kilogram on the trip so you need to manage this so they can race at their ideal weight. Stonebrook had his first trip to Brisbane and dropped 700gms, he was just under his ideal weight but went good, may be he is telling me he needs to be a little lighter. This is the lightest he has ever been. Dogs get jaded and need time off;that happens here. Quiet often they will have a week off, they can go 10 days without work and won’t loose anything.

Kennel Hand Lynn Williams with one of her favourites

I am a pretty radical trainer ”.
Kennel hand Lynn Williams joins the conversation saying she has worked for some high profile kennels that work to a routine, the Lavis kennels have no routine but the results keep coming. She said it took some getting used too, but the dogs get fed properly, have plenty of fresh water and enjoy lots of TLC.
When quizzed about his feeding regime Pat said” I use Track & Train kibble twice a day and with meat of an evening. Most dogs get 400gms of kibble per day. Track & Train is a level above anything I have used in the past. The dogs have got energy. You can unload at the track and they are alert and bouncing about, ready to go. I have stopped using multivitamins in the last six weeks. Normally I would give multi vitamins after a race but I haven’t done that either. The coats are really good and their hasn’t been a dog refuse to eat it even the old Great Dane, and he can knock back meat at times”.

Lynn commented”Track & Train is not a heavy kibble. It is the best kibble by far compared to all the kibbles I have seen used at the kennels I have worked in”.
Pat’s race team is mainly owned by outside clients but he is working on training more of his home bred dogs. This is part of the strategy for upgrading the team for future metropolitan racing. He reckons he has a pretty good team around him with wife Sue, kennel hand Lynn looking after the needs of the race team, Brodie in charge of pups and Craig deputising at the track from time to time.

His advice for anyone wanting to train greyhounds “ Be patient and watch the weights. If you want some help, give me a ring, I’m always willing to give a hand with advice, a diet, whatever I can help with ”.