Val Cleghorn (left) , Mel Felton-Cleghorn and Ben Cleghorn with winning dogs Blue Mood, Black Time, Argonaut, Touch Of Onyx and Devine Rogue. Photo: Geoff O’Neill 250912GOB01
DURI greyhound trainers John and Val Cleghorn and their family couldn’t remember exactly when they last notched five wins on the same weekend.
But they won’t have to stretch their memories back very far now after achieving that feat at Gunnedah and Muswellbrook last weekend.
It started with a treble at Gunnedah on Saturday, and two more wins at Muswellbrook on Sunday completed the five.
“It’s a long time since we’ve got five up,” Val Cleghorn said.
“It would be seven or eight years.”
Argonaut and Touch Of Onyx both broke their maidens at Gunnedah while Devine Rogue won a 4/5th grade event.
On Sunday, Black Time scored another win and broke the 25-second barrier to make it four.
But the highlight was Blue Mood’s win in the Bloom’s Pump 5th Grade (328m) final at Muswellbrook.
Having won the heat the week before from box four, the greyhound repeated that effort in the final.
Blue Mood hadn’t been starting well but was still picking up places.
In the Muswellbrook series, she got out of the boxes quicker and there was no stopping her.
Four of the five winners are littermates – Argonaut, Touch Of Onyx, Black Time and Blue Mood – and have all shown dramatic improvement since arriving in Duri.
“A friend in Sydney sent them to us,” Val Cleghorn said.
“They couldn’t get them to go.
“They were so broken down when they came here.
“Our muscle man (Ben Cleghorn) has been working really hard to get them right.
“If it wasn’t for Ben and Graham and John we wouldn’t be able to do it.
“It’s a family affair.”
John and Val’s son Graham and grandson Ben help out and the other member of the family heavily involved is granddaughter Mel Felton-Cleghorn.
The 17-year-old isn’t old enough to hold a trainer’s licence but she does have a handler’s licence.
Black Time is her greyhound and she is very proud of Sunday’s effort.
“They said she was no good,” Mel said.
But she has now won four races.
It may have been a few years since the family has claimed a five-win weekend but it has been involved in dog racing for decades.
“We’ve been in it for 30 years,” Val Cleghorn said.
“John was president of the club.
“In fact we ran the club here.
“Then we got out for five years and moved to Sydney and when we came back we were to never get into greyhounds again.”
But that wasn’t the case.
They now have 13 dogs, not all of which are in work at the moment.
The plan for the winning quintet is to give them another run at Muswellbrook this Sunday.
Beyond that, if their good form holds up, they will probably get starts at a TAB track.
