Jemma Daley to honour late mentor at Capalaba

By Jordan Gerrans

Jemma Daley has several Group victories on her training resume but a newly introduced race series at Capalaba might just surpass those if she can be successful on Sunday afternoon. 

The Park Ridge South mentor qualified two runners from her kennel through to the decider of a new series named after her late mentor Mike “Tricky’ Stephenson.

The series is held for dogs who have won between one and five races over the 366 metre grass track at Capalaba.

The top trainer worked closely with the Capalaba Greyhound Racing Club hierarchy as well as her main kennel owner Tony Glover to bring the series to life. 

They had been in discussions for around six months ahead of the heats on Sunday. 

Glover and the top trainer have kicked in $3,000 of their own cash to boost the stakes for Sunday’s Final.

“He was not only a great mentor, but he was also a good friend,” Daley said.

“I would have got into the greyhounds anyway, but he made my transition so much easier.

"To have someone in your corner and have so much faith in you to introduce me to someone like Tony, it was amazing.

“I always say that I would give all my winners and what I have achieved back if we could have Tricky back.

“I am blessed to be in the position we have landed ourselves in, but it hasn’t happened without hard work. 

"For something like this to come to life for someone like Tricky, no one deserves it more than him.”

The man widely known as Tricky in the greyhound game passed away in May of 2021.

He was known as a ‘knockabout larrikin’.

A lifelong greyhound man, Tricky’s pride and joy was Hara’s Panda who in the year before he passed gave him his first Group winner after almost 50 years in the sport.

Daley was entrenched in the thoroughbred industry as a youngster, riding in races as a jockey until 2010, before she was taken under the wing of Tricky and shown the ropes of the greyhound caper.

She has since gone on to win several Group races and prepare a highly competitive kennel alongside her partner Tarquin Neal.

Daley and Glover were keen to race the series at Capalaba as it was a venue Tricky loved attending with his chasers.

Daley can recall many a fond memory of going to the Capalaba track alongside her late mentor as he took a dog to the grass venue to further their education or trial between races.

A total of five heats were contested at Capalaba for the first running of the series named in Tricky’s honour on Sunday.

After hatching the idea in the middle of 2025, the team behind the introduction of the series were stoked with the outcome.

“I was pleased to see five good heats with a spread of trainers across the heats,” she said.

“That was the most important thing to see that it was represented by the smaller and bigger kennels at the same time.

“It is an inclusive series and that is why we did it that way.”

The Daley kennel couldn’t taste success in any of the heats, but they have done enough to force their way into the Final this Sunday. 

Hara's Chuck, Hara's Chief and Hara's Squash all ran second in their heat on Sunday.

Squash will start in the green in the decider with Chief to her outside in the seven.

Chuck is hoping for a scratching as the second emergency for the race. 

The Robert Giltinan-prepared Jane’s Jet set the fastest heat time on Sunday with a 19.71 second performance. 

The 36-year-old Daley would dearly love to win the race named after her mate and thinks Squash and Chief will give her a fair chance of doing so. 

“Squash has got the early speed,” she said.

“She might not be the strongest late.

“Chief has plenty of ability, but he has been a bit of a problem child. Hopefully he has come through the run well and he is always finishing of well late.

“They are two very different dogs but can run about the same times.

“It is going to be about if Chief can stay out of trouble and hopefully Squash has benefited from the run.”