Two broken arms was the best thing that happened to Million Dollar Chase trainer Frank Hurst
Greyhound trainer Frank Hurst was due for even better luck than when his dog Good Odds Harada won the Million Dollar Chase.
NSW
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Trainer Frank Hurst thought he had used up all his good luck when his champion greyhound hurtled home to win $1 million dollars in the world’s richest dog race last year.
And when a dog he was training crashed into him, knocking him unconscious and breaking both of his arms he was sure of it.
“Turns out it was the luckiest thing that ever happened to me,” Frank said. “They gave me a scan and found I had a brain tumour.”
Several months on and Frank, 73, has had the tumour removed and is fielding his champion Good Odds Harada into the heats at Wentworth Park at the beginning of October to see if he can win The Million Dollar Chase for the second year running.
“The dog is going better now than he was 12 months ago,” Frank said. “It was humbling to win the race. After 50 years of dog training it was not the money, winning was my gold medal.”
Frank is happy to play down what happened to him this year. “We were training the dog on the track, it’s something that we have done thousands of times but none has ever run into me.”
But his wife Tracey, 57, is still shaking her head in disbelief at the turn of events. “I was on holiday with some girlfriends in Bali when the call came through that he had broken his arms.”
There was no suggestion that he had any other health issues. Because he had been knocked out the doctors gave him a scan and found the tumour. They operated the second COVID restrictions allowed.
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“I picked him up from hospital after the operation on the tumour, a new right elbow and a pinned and plated left collar bone,” Tracey said.
The surgery had taken three times longer than expected and Frank had a stroke on the operating table.
“It was just horrid,” Tracey said. They arrived back at their Londonderry home, right next to the Richmond Race Track, and a very frail Frank pushed his walker straight to the backyard to see the dogs.
“Only then did he come inside, sit on the lounge and have a cup of coffee,” Tracey said. “He loves his kids and grandkids but what gets him out of bed every morning is the responsibility he feels for those animals.”
Tracey knows that lady luck has shone on her family this past year. “We won $1 million but we won a whole lot more that day when he broke his arms and we found something that could have killed him.”