Johnstone's Training Stocks Continue To Rise

DARREN Johnstone has been in business his whole life, he knows the value of a good reputation and having someone to trust.

In just two years as a greyhound trainer, with the help of wife Sue, Darren's been able to establish a brand which is shining through on the race track.

Johnstone's last nine runners have yielded three winners, two seconds, three thirds and a fourth.

It's an extraordinary run he's not taking for granted.

"I'm having a good run at the moment, when it goes your way you take it while you can, next week it all could change," Johnstone laughed.

"I set myself goals at the start of the year, have done budgets of where we've needed to be to keep moving forward and we're ticking all those boxes so far.

"I had a certain number of starters and winners I wanted to get to and we're ahead of schedule there, but I've got a lot of dogs who pay the bills running placings consistently which are crucial for a relatively new kennel like ours."

The kennel may still be in its infancy, but it stands on the same blocks that make any trainer successful.

"Ours is just like any kennel you've got to have good dogs to be successful and our original pups we bought have largely paid off and are the ones winning races for us now," Johnstone said.

"I owe a lot to my owners headed by Kelly Waltisbuhl who trusted me with Truthiness, Miss Imperious and Madam Waltz. They were the first to bring their dogs to me and all three are going great at the moment, especially Truthiness.

"Even in the last week I've had a couple of new dogs come into the kennels from owners in NSW; I'm starting to build a small following and hopefully the influx of dogs will continue going forward."

When Johnstone sold up his Post Office business and decided to get into dogs there was always going to be risks but doing his homework on his first batch of pups is paying dividends.

"I took a punt about three years ago and bought about a dozen or so pups and we've been able to stagger them on the way; some have been racing for eighteen months while others are just getting started," he said.

"Going forward I want to put a real emphasis on racing good five hundred and six hundred metre dogs and if I can build a reputation with that class of animal the more likely potential clients are to bring us those types of dogs."

Johnstone is well on the way to establishing that reputation thanks largely to his previous working experiences and the trainer is promoting the sport to his entire friendship circle on social media.

"Most of my life I've operated my own businesses and I said to my new owners from New South wales it might look like I'm pumping up my own tyres, posting replays and talking about my wins but if you don't self-promote no-one is going to do it for you," he said.

"It's making a lot of my friends who have never followed greyhounds stand up and take notice when they watch a replay on Facebook. If that can get just one person interested in getting involved in the sport, I've done my job."

The Johnstone kennel is all about balance and on top of the pups they purchased and those from outside owners they've started their own breeding line with prolific Albion Park winner Daisy Dreams teaming up with Zambora Brockie for some new blood.

"We ended up with nine pups out of the litter (Zambora Brockie/Daisy Dreams) when we thought we were only getting six," Johnstone said.

"We had David Brasch do the pedigree analysis for us; Zambora Brockie was high up on my list and when he said he thought it was a good match that's the way we went, and we've sold three-week-old pups already."