Training Legend Ken Cheetham Passes Away

THE term “legend” seems to be used too loosely these days but in the world of greyhound racing nobody was more deserved of the tag than Ken Cheetham, who passed away on Thursday.

Cheetham, who was 87, trained two winners of the NSW Greyhound of the Year award, How's The Fort in 1992 and Take The Kitty in 2009, along with great stayer Brettianly, Myocard, John's Fury and Fine Chiang, who he always rated his fastest greyhound.

“Cheeto” trained Fine Chiang for Doug Hobden, the great Hunter Valley breeder of the 1950s and 60s.

Hobden bred Top Linen, the sire of Black Top and grandsire of Zoom Top, along with Roman Earl, the 1966 National Derby winner who shared that year's NSW Greyhound of the Year award with Rose Moss.

Although Cheetham won a swag of big races with Take The Kitty and How's The Fort, who took out the 1992 Peter Mosman Classic, he always declared his greatest thrill being when Fine Chiang beat the “invincible” Zoom Top on her merits in a 700 yards (640m) race at Singleton.

In an interview I conducted with Ken for GRNSW's The Chaser magazine in April, 2006, he said his greatest regret was that in the 60s and 70s veterinary expertise was not as significant as it was 30 years later.

He told me: “I had some great dogs who broke down and finished their careers prematurely but with the veterinary techniques now available they would have been able to continue racing.”

Ken Cheetham's first big race winner was Flying Myobb, who came from the tail of the field to win the 1964 National Derby at Wentworth Park a year after taking out the equivalent race on the Richmond straight track.

Ken Cheetham's initial association with greyhounds was when he earned pocket money exercising a local woman's dog near his family's home at Millthorpe, in western NSW.

“My parents Molly and Len had 11 kids so I had to pick up a bit of pocket money,” he once recalled.

Two years later the Cheethams had moved to Maitland where Ken's father was a taxi driver, and at 19 Ken Cheetham began acting as “chauffeur” for Mick Cantwell, a leading trainer in the Coalfields districts.

Through Cantwell, Cheetham began assisting another great Hunter Valley trainer, Fred Lambert, who raced stars like Oakleigh Cola, Oakleigh's Pal, Autumn Gem, Chief Sultan and Cedar Touch.

He usually ranked Lambert as his most influential training mentor.

“Cheeto” often recalled how he once took his then two-year-old son Tony with him to trial some greyhounds at Tommy Bourke's trial track at Abermain.

“I got so carried away clocking and watching the dogs I forgot about Tony and drove home without him,” Cheetham related.

“When my wife Marie inquired where Tony was I remembered I'd left him at the trial track, and when I went back to get him there was Tony sitting in the Bourke kitchen, unperturbed, having breakfast with Tommy and his family.”

Ken Cheetham had battled ill health for several years but continued training until recently, and was winning races until late last year.

Ken Cheetham is survived by his daughters Robyn and Louise, son Tony, and Marie, his wife of 67 years.

Greyhound Racing NSW and Ken Cheetham's many friends in the sport would like to pass on their sincere condolences to the Cheetham family.