Mulrine kennel thriving on Queensland move

By Jordan Gerrans

The Mulrine kennel have been nothing short of prolific since they relocated to the Sunshine State and the team get a chance to send a message on a big carnival occasion this Saturday.

Previously based at Goulburn, Andy and Kim Mulrine have moved north to Queensland alongside their son Patrick and other family members to race consistently at The Q.

They are working with a boutique kennel of 10 chasers at Booval as they are aiming to have quality over quantity at their disposal as they begin their assault on racing north of the border.

The family have been training for almost half-a-century.

With the majority of the dogs racing under Andy’s name at the moment, the kennel won two heats of the Mick Byrne Memorial series last Saturday at Q2 Parklands.

The Listed Final of the event will be hosted at the same venue this Saturday on the undercard for the massive Queensland and Brisbane Cup deciders.

“We have got good owners,” Kim said.

“Everything has been going perfect since we moved. We bought a beautiful place.”

One of those owners is Michael Wales who has Dixie Lad, among other chasers, with the Mulrine family.

Wales will make the trip up to The Q on Saturday evening to see his up-and-coming dog compete.

Dixie Lad was the first of the two heat winners last week in 29.78 seconds after the blue fawn dog went an impressive 29.74 seconds the week prior. 

The son of Aston Rupee has always carried a big reputation as he has started as a short-priced favourite in his five career starts so far.

He went under as the favourite in his first three efforts after starting out with trainer Ben Howe in New South Wales.

Since he has shifted to the Mulrines in Queensland, he is unblemished in two starts.

Andy spoke with Howe just recently and the dog’s former trainer believes the Mulrine’s smaller kennel has been key to Dixie Lad blossoming.

“We started trialing him up here and we put a bit of extra weight on him,” Andy said.

“He started to do everything right. He was a bit like a pup when we first got him and he just needed some trialing and some straight work, stuff like that.

“That sorted him out and he has started to put some time on the board.”

Not long after Dixie Lad’s heat triumph, kennelmate Shanghai Spy also booked her place in the decider after winning in 30.27 seconds from the eight alley.

Fellow Mulrine chaser Canya Succeed ran second in the third of four heats and was beaten by Travis Elson’s Pop's Maestro.

Andy thinks Group 1-winning mentor Elson and Pop's Maestro will be hard to hold out on Saturday evening in the $24,000 event, which is restricted to maiden and grade six greyhounds.

“He went well again and ran about the same time as what he did the week before,” Andy said Dixie Lad’s heat win.

“It will be a good Final this one, Travis Elson’s dog has a lot of ability when he hits the ground after 10 metres and he is the one to beat in this race.”

On top of the Mulrine’s Mick Byrne Memorial runners, the kennel have been absolutely airborne since they relocated north.

Since they started racing greyhounds in Queensland in early May, they have recorded 17 victories from almost 40 starters.

They also boast a stunning record at Albion Park.

They have taken nine starters to the track to the race and have walked away with eight victories.

“They are all pretty good dogs, they should all go a pretty fair way,” Andy said.

“We do not want to go in big numbers of dogs anymore; we just want to stay as a small kennel of quality dogs.

“We are not breeding the pups anymore, we are just buying the race dogs before they race or as maidens.

“We go along those lines because we have done our years of breeding as it is a lot of hard work doing the breeding. We are pleased with the way it has been going.

“It is a nice thing to achieve because it is a nice track to race at Albion Park. You have got to have the stock to do it.”

The majority of the race dogs are in Andy’s name at the moment, but Patrick and Kim are also set to feature prominently in the near future.

The Mulrine clan raced Winifred Nora for NSW in the recent Origin Distance event after taking on the dog for a northern campaign for the Rees kennel.