Flying start for new training partnership
Peter Fenemor • January 8th, 2025 11:28 AM
The newly formed Dave Fahey and Katie Wyllie training partnership got off to a flying start during last Thursday's Addington meeting when training three-winners, which included a track record.
It was the current New Zealand Cup title holder One Hot Bandit who secured the new training partnerships first training success when he powered to his emphatic 5.75 length win. (Click here to watch a replay of this race)
His swift 29.62 clock is a new Addington 525m track record, lowering the previous best 29.69 525m time set by the Garry Cleeve prepared Stuck Throttle.
And in the very next race the Fahey and Wyllie combination very nearly added the 295m track record to their freshly minted CV when Opawa Mocha flew through his sprint in a sizzling 16.55 seconds, which is just 0.05 sec outside of his Addington 295m track record. (Watch Opawa Mocha's victory here)
The former outstanding Dave and Jean Fahey training partnership has left a long lasting impression on the New Zealand greyhound racing scene. They mentored an incredible 131 Group wins alone, comprising of 65 wins each at Group 1 and Group 2 levels, along with a sole Australian Group 3 winner.
Their Group 1 training successes includes an amazing 11 New Zealand Cup victories.
The couple are leading the race to secure the 2024/25 NZ Trainers Strike Rate title, with their partnership for the current season concluding with a remarkable UDR figure of 0.4897, the result of 148 wins and 118 minor placings ($601,582 in stakes) from the 417 starters they lined up until December 31.
So why change such a highly successful training partnership five-months into the current season? Jean Fahey, via a social media post, explains.
“Just to stop any rumours!
“Dave and I decided after the shocking announcement last month that we would acknowledge the contribution Katie Wyllie makes to our kennels by changing our racing partnership to D Fahey & K Wyllie from 1 January. We felt Katie was going to be deprived of training in her own right due to the impending ban and it just wasn’t fair.
“I’m still here in the background helping with greyhounds in the mornings and looking after the finances.”
Dave Fahey picks up on the decision.
“Katie has been our kennel foreperson for a number of years. She has done a fantastic job over that time, being an extremely hard working lady, whom we have complete trust in.
“Nothing fazes her in whatever she does with greyhounds. Katie is very diligent and completely trustworthy. She thoroughly deserves and has earnt the right of being recognised as a trainer.”
Katie Wyllie will be spending a fair bit of time on the road over the coming weeks as she will be responsible for a team of around seven greyhounds who have been earmarked for the looming Auckland Cup carnival.
“Katie will be taking our Auckland Cup and Railway Sprint greyhounds north. She is experienced and is very efficient in travelling our greyhounds,” added Fahey.
One Hot Bandit will spearhead the kennels northern campaign. He has one more Addington assignment before embarking on his northern trip.
The Punters HQ and Emma Potts owned greyhound will contest Thursday’s Selwyn Rakaia Vets Ltd Stakes (Race 9), where he will be hotly favoured to take out the C5 525m event.
The Opawa Racing Ltd owned Opawa Mocha will complete his Railway Sprint preparation in the Springston Hotel Dash (Race 8) and he will clash with the smart Malcolm Grant trained Diamond Ranger who is looking to build on his current five-race winning streak.
Dave Fahey provides his thoughts on some of the numerous highlights that Jean and he enjoyed during their massively successful training partnership.
“Training 11 New Zealand Cup winners is very satisfying. I guess training our first Group race winner Egyptian Gold (2003) was exciting.
“Winsome Ashley was one of the best we trained. She was a machine,” explained Fahey about the 2008 Auckland Cup winner (setting the current 29.77 Manukau 527m track record).
Fahey added, “Training our first Silver Collar winner (Winsome Dosh 2008) is right up there, although I rate Dangle The Carat as the best stayer we trained.
“We trained for many owners with Opawa Racing Ltd and Darryl McLaughlin being key owners who we enjoyed great success training for over many years. We are very grateful for all owners who supported us.”
Many of those owners stylishly celebrated their wins with Dave and Jean Fahey at their local Anglers Arms Tavern in Sefton.
You can expect that tradition to continue under the new Dave Fahey and Katie Wyllie training partnership.
Photograph at the top of the page: Katie Wyllie with the New Zealand Cup winner One Hot Bandit
