How 'Latrell' is helping chook farmer revive his career in greyhounds

By Alex Nolan

Conrad Buhner was captivated by greyhounds from a young age but decided step away from the pursuit for the best part of a decade to focus on his growing business and family.

The Alberton-based chook farmer is now back in the game, with plenty of support from his young family and a greyhound that shares his name with one of rugby league’s most famous ‘Chooks turned Bunnies’.  

Buhner trained his second Thursday night winner at Albion Park last week when the topically named Latrell justified a strong betting move to win a masters fifth grade race over 520 metres.

The rising four-year-old son of Norm The Storm was backed from as much as $26 into $7 after gaining a start as first reserve and took full advantage of an inside draw to score by 5.25 lengths.

Latrell returns to ‘The Creek’ this week looking to continue the same momentum his rugby league namesake is currently gathering, as the South Sydney Rabbitohs prepared for their NRL preliminary final against Penrith on Saturday.

“People have been coming up and wanting to show me photos of them with Souths full back Latrell Mitchell, assuming I’m a fan,” Buhner laughed, noting he picked up the give away and now six-time winner just months ago.

“I took on the dog with intention of taking him to masters races, he was a fairly strong 500 metre dog and that’s all I was looking for.

“I had to take a risk because he hadn’t run for a while and was out of form, but it’s paid off.”

Initially leaving behind city-based jobs to focus on poultry farming, Buhner and his wife Jeanie now own and operate Mother Hen Australia which aims to empower “Aussie backyards with products and equipment to become self-sufficient”.

With some added flexibility that came with running the family business, and with children Dieter (12) and Hunter (9) a little older, Buhner was lured back to the sport he fell in love with as a primary school aged lad.

“I think I was in grade six or seven when a new neighbour moved in next door to our place at Alberton and he had greyhounds,” Buhner said.

“He had them running up the fence line and I thought ‘wow, what are these dogs?’ They caught my eye, so I started going over and being a little nuisance, asking questions.

“Eventually, our family went for dinner at their place and after dinner we sat down and went through some old VHS tapes.”

The neighbour turned out to be trainer Owen Lockett, who prepared Western Creole to win the 1990 Sandown Cup.

“I started going along to the track with him a few times but by the age of 13 or 14 I lost interest,” Buhner said.

“I started buying dogs in about 2003 when I was working for Mercedez Benz and had a little bit of success with them, nothing major, but TAB grade dogs.”

Upon his return to the sport last year, Buhner fulfilled a near lifelong dream in April when Shian Cody gave him his first Thursday night winner at Albion Park.

Despite a tough start to 2022, as the family battled back-to-back floods at their property, Buhner says he is enjoying his new lifestyle with racing greyhounds as his main hobby once more.  

“When I was working for an employer I was getting up at 4:30am to work the dogs and arriving at work by 7am,” Buhner said.

“Plus, after having our children it all became too much.

“Now with our own business I can be more flexible with my time and work the dogs in the morning without having to join the rat race and the kids are a little older now and come to the track with us and the eldest is active in the morning cleaning kennels.”

Latrell and kennel mate Roxy Tequila – owned by the Buhners – are joined in the kennel by Roussimoff and On The Bayou, which are co-owned by Ian and Kerry Hoggan.

For the moment, that is the make-up of the kennel as the family waits for an Allen Deed and Ballerina litter to hit the track.

“Ian and Kerry Hoggan have been great giving me a couple of dogs to train,” Buhner said.  

“The litter is due at the track in six to eight months.

“At the moment I’m taking the opportunity to refine my training skills with mature dogs because I was out for a while.

“My wife plays a big part as well, she played tennis professionally and she does a bit of massage work with the dogs. We’re also big believers in hot and cold therapy.”

Buhner says Latrell, a noted rails runner, is likely to struggle to find his preferred going from box five in race three – another masters race – on Thursday night.

Roxy Tequila has also fared poorly when it comes to the box draw, copping box six in the second masters event, which comes up as race eleven on Thursday.

“Latrell and Roxy aren’t superstars but in the end if they’re competitive, I’m happy,” Buhner said.

“The big thing for Latrell is that he’s now a happy dog.

“He needed plenty of time to settle in as his anxiety levels were high.

“There’s more to racing than just dogs in a kennel. We treat them the best we can with everything from food to equipment because, as they say, if you’ve got a happy dog then you’ve got a much greater chance of winning and he’s jumping out of his skin at the moment.”