Beau’s Avondale Bitches Put Their Trainer On Track For Brilliance

26-year-old Beau Hedley is radically making his presence felt within the training ranks as one of the most promising young talents to pick up the lead and collar. Hedley trains from a property owned by his uncle, Michael Brown, at Cooranbong NSW. Brown has already established himself as a prominent breeder since purchasing his property just six years ago with Hedley also relatively new after only five years within the industry.

“My uncle bought a greyhound and fell in love with them so then he bought the property and it has just grown from there”, Hedley said.

“The property is fully for us to breed and rear our own dogs but it also has race kennels and a straight track so we can pretty much do everything here from the day they are born. The only time they leave the property before they race is to be broken-in by Ziggy (Zig Kadir) or trial”.

The owner-trainer partnership between Brown and Hedley is intrinsic to their success on the racetrack with the majority of their greyhounds coming from their handy line that carries the ‘Avondale' prefix. The title ‘Avondale' refers to a small village of the same name in their hometown of Cooranbong and serves as an appropriate tag to track each dog throughout its career.

The most notable dog to carry the name was the bitch Avondale Queen. By Trewly Special out of Golorinda, Avondale Queen faced the starter on just twenty occasions but rather impressively put together twelve wins and four minors. Throughout her imposing albeit short career, Avondale Queen posted some sensational times at 22.39 seconds (400 metres), Maitland 24.96 seconds (450 metres), 29.51 seconds (515 metres), 29.59 seconds (520 metres) and Richmond 30.36 seconds (535 metres).

Hedley rates Avondale Queen to be the best the kennel has produced and that he has trained.

“She was by far the best we have had. She was an extremely quick bitch,” Hedley said.

Avondale Queen was retired in September last year but, as luck would have it, their most valuable broodbitch to date is yet to come on season. Whilst Brown and Hedley anxiously wait for the day that Avondale Queen becomes a mum things are still busy around the property with 40 dogs on the ground, 15 of which are in work.

The current kennel star is undoubtedly Avondale Porche. From her five appearances to date the daughter of and Micro Lee is yet to taste defeat saluting at all five outings. In those wins were quick times at Maitland 25.29 seconds (450 metres), The Gardens 29.50 seconds (515 metres) and Richmond 30.68 seconds (535 metres).

“Avondale Porche is brilliant but probably not as quick as Avondale Queen,” Hedley explained, “But I can't fault her so far”.
“She has only just turned two and she is learning every time she races. She is still a bit young in the head but she has done everything I have asked of her”.

“I will take her down for a look at Wenty and if she can handle the track then she will move on to bigger and better things”.
Hedley also trains litter sister Avondale Tara who took out a heat of the group three Laurie Healion Memorial at The Gardens on Saturday night. The 27 kilogram bitch was having her second start after a previous third at Maitland but was too good on this occasion posting 29.88 seconds.

“I was extremely impressed with her run”, Hedley enthused.

“I school a lot of my dogs at the Gardens and then take them to Maitland to build them up over the 450 but she was disappointing there. She handled the track alright but she was not as good there as she is at The Gardens”.

“I gave her a post to post and a run from the boxes and she went really well so I decided to put her in the series”.

Drawn in box seven (race eight) for her semi-final this Hedley is optimistic of her chance of qualifying for the $25,000 to the winner decider.

“She can probably go a touch better than in her heat and get down to the 29.70 mark. She has fairly good pace and a really good turn of foot”.

“I don't think box seven will worry her. She can go about 5.03 to the mark and that should see her up there early and it may be enough to hold them out”.

Hedley has a second runner in the semi-finals with Avondale Charm also ultra-impressive in her heat. After an average beginning the red brindle bitch showed tremendous speed to find the lead, racing away for a hot 29.76 seconds victory. Avondale Charm will jump in race six and is also drawn in box seven.

“She lacks genuine speed. She is just not fast enough early and that is a big fault of hers”.

“I wasn't going to put her in due to the early speed you get in these types of races but she can improve and she could probably run around 29.50”.

“She should get room to move from out wide to make up for her slow box speed. She has plenty of ability and should be able to muster and hook around the outside of the field”.

With the kennel at present, Hedley is about the future, and it appears the sky is the limit for the aspiring mentor.

“It's the best lot of dogs we have ever had at once. When we had Avondale Queen racing it was only really her so it's exciting to be able to or three to the track and know you have a chance”.

“I have learnt from some good trainers to only ever start dogs with ability. I would love to do a lot of racing but I don't – if I don't have the stock I won't go to the track”.

“We will always stick to breeding to keep our line going but I would also like to get some more dogs in the racing kennels”.

With his drive and passion for all aspects of greyhound racing Beau Hedley is certainly becoming a force to be reckoned with as the Brown-Hedley team gear up for what is sure to be a prosperous few years on the track.

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