Burns ‘All In' In Pursuit Of Maturity Classic Glory

DAYS after reaching his first group 1 final, the enormity of the achievement is still yet to fully sink in for trainer Craig Burns. 

His kennel's star greyhound, Tinker Norm, turned in one of the runs of the night in the Maturity heats to book his ticket in the group 1 final at The Meadows this Saturday night. 

Stepping moderately from box five, Tinker Norm accelerated quickly to squeeze through a narrowing gap approaching the first turn. He was denied a run beneath Dutch Riot and was checked to the outside, but down the back straight had recovered to third and set out in pursuit of the leaders.  

He swept past Dutch Riot off the back and despite having to switch to the outside turning for home, powered past Transponder to deny the $1.40 favourite by a head. 

 "What a buzz. I still can't help watching the replay, just to make sure it doesn't change," said Burns.  

"I thought we'd get past Dutch Riot on the way home, but to pick Transponder up the way he did, I was speechless. I've called 2500 auctions in my life and I'm normally not short of a word but I was speechless after that run.

 "It was very exciting." 

Burns is a relative newcomer to the sport having trained his first winner just two years ago. He was first introduced to the greyhound by a friend's father as a teenager, but it was many more years before his involvement in the sport grew.  

"When I was 12 or 13 my best mate's dad was a bloke called Max Scott, I think he was the president of the Geelong Club, and they had some dogs in a residential home about five doors up from us. And every night after school we'd walk the dogs. 

"After we finished school, I went into real estate. Through real estate, I sold a property for a guy who I ended up being friends with and his brother bred a litter. He rang and said to me ‘do you want to buy a pup'? That was about seven or eight years ago and that was our first race dog, Tinker Bob. After that we bought a few more pups and then after that we decided that we'd breed and train our own.  

"We bought a property about five years ago with the intention to just to breed and rear but it's now changed to breeding, rearing, pretraining and training.

“You can say we're all in – we sold our house, three investment properties and a real estate business to tip it all into the greyhounds. We've gone from working 60 hours a week to about 120. C'est la vie, it's 24/7 and 365," he said with a laugh.

Tinker Norm, a winner of 13 of his 32 starts, won on debut and showed enough early ability for Burns to enter the Group 1 Silver Chief last December, in which he ran second in his heat behind Triumph.  

After a let up, Tinker Norm returned to build an impressive record on the provincial circuit and enters Saturday's group 1 final having been placed in 14 of his last 15 starts. Burns says he's much better prepared for his second group 1 series.  

"I've probably improved with the way I've prepped him. He's got more run in the legs at the moment, he's a beautiful dog, and obviously he's pretty special to us,” Burns beamed.

 "He's actually got brilliant field sense. He's probably the smartest greyhound I've seen, he doesn't mind working through the field.  

"There was a start there at Geelong five or six starts back where he drew the red and people thought he missed the start, but he began that well that he got his muzzle caught on the bottom bar, nearly landed on his chest and he gave them about a four or five length start.

“I don't know how, but he had five dogs in front of him going into the first turn at Geelong there and he just made a gap because there wasn't one there. I think he ran home in 13.83 or something ridiculous.  

"He has got a really good turn of foot and he can ping the lids but he has been caught out at the boxes because he's trying to get out too quick and he's pushing his muzzle into the grill.

“He didn't do it last Saturday night and if he doesn't do it again this Saturday night he'll give himself every chance to be in a forward position. I'd certainly want to be in the first four down the back. I'd love to be front and punching out 17.60 and let them chase us." 

Despite his impressive heat win, Tinker Norm is rated the $17 outsider of the field in which less than two lengths separates six of the finalists on their qualifying times.

? MATURITY CLASSIC HEAT ?

TINKER NORM (Rug 5) wins the fourth heat of the Group 1 KCR #MaturityClassic (525m) at @MelbourneGreys in 29.851 seconds for trainer Craig Burns.

Result ?? https://t.co/kbrZjILr6L#GreyhoundRacing #PremierRacing pic.twitter.com/7yw9ZgBXIu

— WatchDog Racing (@WatchDogRacing) July 15, 2023

 "Pretty much every dog in the field has a case to say they can win. My biggest issue is at box rise and if the three comes down on me, where I'll end up.

“Drawing down low would normally be advantageous, but you've got to come out and get forward as well.  

 "It's quite an even field, it's going to take a bit of luck – it takes a bit of luck in any race – let's home it comes our way."

Beyond Saturday night, Burns is remaining realistic in future assignments for ‘Normie' but does admit that his recent performances have opened a number of options for him. Asked which race he'd most like to win, his answer was simple.

 "The next one I'm in!

 "Everyone wants to win group races, but I'm more inclined to find the right races for the dogs rather than win a particular race, I think that's part of the secret to being successful. But with Tinker Norm running the way he did on Saturday night, it's opened my eyes to more races that I could target with him and it was fantastic prove that he's more than just a 450m dog."

 Paw Note:

All of Burns' greyhounds carry the ‘Tinker' prefix. He explained how it came to be:

 "The first dog that we bought, we sent to a property in Bendigo to be reared and they gave him the kennel name of ‘Bobby'. My dad's name is Bob, and his nickname as a kid was Tinker Bob. So, when we went to name the dog, I threw that in as the first option and we got it and it stuck thereafter. I don't think Dad was terribly impressed with me naming a dog after him initially, but now I think he quite enjoys it."