Mrs. Sing music to Fuller’s ears

By Isaac Murphy

Through tragedy comes triumph, and the story of the Tricia Fuller is a testament to that statement.

Respected trainer Glenn Smith sadly passed away last year, but the way his wife Tricia has continued to give back to the greyhound community has been nothing short of astounding.

Her recent success as a trainer is testament to a woman who stood up in the face of adversity, with good things starting to happen for the renewed trainer as she moves to the next chapter.

Smith trained for decades with his wife in the wings supporting, but it’s now her training efforts that are turning heads with two-year-old Mrs. Sing winning four of her last six - running a 29.89 personal best last time out.

“She’d run some decent time at Albion when she won her Novice back in August last year and since then she’s been on season and had the full four months off, so it took a while to get her back,” she Fuller said.

“I think the spike in her racing comes down to maturity, I’ve got three from the litter (Thirty Talks/Spring Dream) and she’s always been the one who looked the most likely right from break in.

“She’d never been up to the 520 before her maiden win with most of her work at Ipswich, she’s just been able to get out on the bunny and get a little bit of confidence for the first time in her career.”

Before her latest preparation, which has been solely over the 520 metres, Mrs. Sing had a modest three wins from almost twenty starts but has exploded since getting up in trip.

“Her record will show she needed to get up to the 520, she was getting in a crowd far too often over the sprint trips and luckily I had some good advice that it was time to get her up in distance,” Fuller said.

“She really enjoys the start out of the 520 metre boxes, she’s pinging the lids and has the time to cross a field, which she was struggling with on the corner starts.

“She won’t go any further than that 520 metres that’s right on her distance, but with a quick early section and an improving second section she often has the race won, she’s quite brave late even when she’s out on her feet.”

Fuller’s late husband got to see the beginnings of Mrs. Sing’s career but after he passed last year, the onus fell on Fuller to take up the mantle while grieving the loss of her husband.

“She had started racing so Glenn did get to see her win her maiden which he really got a kick out of, because he thought the litter would go on to better things,” Fuller said.

“We named her together after my Grandmother’s maiden name and her being out of Thirty Talks thought Mrs. Sing would suit.

“I always thought I would get out of dogs without Glenn, it was always his passion not mine, but we bred them and because they were young I thought I better keep going, so I renewed my license for the first time since 2012 and got to work.

“The biggest thing in my mind was not wanting to embarrass him and bite off more than I could chew, but at the same time I’m so glad I kept going because they’ve been so therapeutic for me working with them day-in day-out taking my mind off it.”

While Fuller was able to keep some of Smith’s kennel, they had to offload a number of dogs, including Mrs. Sing’s mother Spring Dream, who was sought out by a very successful kennel.

“We bought her as a three-month-old pup and she’s actually a relative to Good Call Paul who Reg Kay trained - they’re both out of the same mother, the line goes back quite a way,” Fuller said.

“We raced her and she was a little bit field shy herself but did run 29.83 at Albion, but she was a bitch that needed everything in her favour to win.

“We ended up breeding with her and just before Glenn passed away, we sold her to Jodie and Andy Lord who are using her as a brood bitch, we knew she was going to a good home with that kennel.”

Mrs. Sing’s rise has been so fast it has almost caught her trainer off guard, and suddenly winter feature races are not out of the picture.

“There’s so many good dogs around I think she might struggle in a feature race right now, I almost put her in the Winged Runner but thought I’d rather try to knock off an ordinary Thursday night race than tackle that field,” Fuller said.

“The next few weeks I’ll just keep her in her grade on Thursday night and if she keeps trending in the right direction, I might have to bite the bullet and put her in something a bit tougher.

“A few starts ago I was actually going to step away from Albion with her, but she’s been going so well I had to stay and I’m glad she loves the place because that’s where the money is.”

Fuller has been a hard-working member of the greyhound industry for some time and continues to enjoy her work at Capalaba and Ipswich as she moves into the next stage of her life.

“I work at Capalaba every Sunday as the race day judge, I’ve actually been doing it for around seven years and do a bit of office work on the side since Glenn passed away,” she said.

“I’ve just started working at Ipswich as well just helping out down on the track, the greyhound community have taken great care of me.”