No truer words written, sincere condolences to Colleen and the Northfield family.

RIP Bill!

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FOR a couple of weeks back just a few months ago, the 201 acre property at Stratheden on the Northern Rivers that has been the Northfield home for 71 years, was without a greyhound.
No one could remember another time when greyhounds had not been there. It lasted only a couple of weeks before Bill Northfield got the loan from Glen Northfield of a broodbitch called Proper Jessica and bred a litter of pups by Knocka Norris.
Bill, 73, and now called Pop by the rest of the Northfield clan that abound in greyhound racing on the Northern Rivers, wouldnt know what to do without a greyhound around.
Just ask Colleen, his wife of 51 years.
The Northern Rivers has been a hub of greyhound racing for a century or more.
Everyone on the Northern Rivers knows the Northfields. Theyve been as much a part of greyhound racing as anyone, and more than most.
Charlie Pop Northfield came from Wollongong as an 18-year-old in May 1923. He and his cousin Les landed at Byron Bay and went share farming in Casino. When Les got married soon after, Charlie moved on to a property at Stratheden. He married Hannah and eventually bought the property he was working, and kept adding to it.
Pop and Hannah had four surviving children, Hannah, Marie, Charlie and the youngest by 10 years Bill. Hannah married another Northern Rivers greyhound legend in Jack Lollback and Marie married Vince Newstead yet another of the famous Northern Rivers greyhound families.
Charlies family is Brad, Gary, Vicki and Glen all involved in the industry.
And Bill and Colleen have left a dynasty of their own among their children and their influence in the industry. Their children are Mitchell, Vincent, Collette, Charlie (of Miss Grub fame) and Ellie.
I was born in 1936, said Bill. The week I was born was the first time dad had been to a greyhound meeting. He had always had a pet greyhound around the property but they were only for chasing hares, or roos.
Dad and the boys loved nothing better than to ride their horses into Casino with the greyhound hare catcher to chase a bad hare that had been a pest around someones farm. Dads best hare catcher was named Trip.
Pop Northfield got his first racing greyhound in 1936. She was promptly bitten by a snake and died.
He didnt give up. By 1940 he had won, in the same week, the Casino Cup and the Ballina Cup with a dog called Bonalls Return who was by Bonall. The 1935 whelp Bonall can be found in the damline of Magic Lightning, sire of the famous Spotted Lightning.
Pop Northfield was self taught in greyhound racing.
There was no one around to teach them, said Bill. All the dog blokes in those days had a big yellow L on their backs. They were all learning.
Pop Northfield became a legend of greyhound racing on the Northern Rivers so much so that the Pop Northfield Maiden at Casino has held its place as one of the most sought-after series about.
Bill married Colleen McGuire, the youngest of 14 children for Jack and Elsie, one of nine boys and five girls. Elsie turned 48 a few days after Colleen was born.
Colleen and her family moved to Casino when she was 13. She remembers riding a horse six miles to get to school. All her family did just that. Her father died in 1949 and Elsie had to bring up her entire family by herself but did so without complaint.
With Pop Northfield being such a devotee of greyhounds, it was only natural Bill would follow suit.
My first dog was called Road Rocket, said Bill. It was in 1958. He was a distance dog and won a trophy race for me. He won a handicap over 655 yards at Lismore giving away 16 yards.
But it was hard to get races for him so I sent him to Neville Ballinger in Sydney and he was placed at Harold Park.
Greyhounds took a back seat for Bill Northfield apart from one or two as an interest while he was a young man. The Stratheden property which he ran with Pop milked 70 to 80 cows twice a day, had pigs and calves and was farmed. That sort of life doesnt leave much time except for a dog or two.
In the late 1960s he bred with a bitch called Dainty Opal that Jack Lollback had. She would produce the Australian Cup finalist The Cadillac and a quality dog called Top Pontiac. Dainty Opals third dam was Pretty Nurse, the dam of Magic Lightning.
Pretty Nurse was also the second dam of a bitch called Fairy Beaver (Happy Beaver-Happy Floral). Bills sister Hannah owned her and gave her to Bill to breed a litter.
Bill put her to Top Kabana and in April 1970 she produced 10 pups that would go on to win more than 200 races between them and push Bill Northfield into the limelight as a greyhound man.
Among the litter was Glee Kabana twice the greyhound of the year on the South Coast and winner of 33 races. She would go to stud to produce the high class Gabba performer Chief Ambition (by Busys Chief).
White Kabana won 30 races. Id sent him to Bruce Edwards in Sydney but he sent him back saying he just wasnt going to do him justice, said Bill. He probably should have won a Galaxy.
I gave him to a very young Dave Irwin to train and he ran second, beaten a head by a dog called Free Reign which Dave had brought up to the carnival for a friend in Sydney. Free Reign had the rails in the final but did no good.
White Kabana won on final day in two or three-tenths faster than the Galaxy winner ran.
Another was Flight Kabana who would win seven races at the Gabba for a youthful Reg Hazelgrove.
By this time Pop was in hospital in Brisbane, said Bill. Mum and my nephew Glen stayed with Reg and Noela Hazelgrove while they were in Brisbane visiting Pop. Glen talked Reg into getting a pup and he bought a dog from the Reynolds brothers and named it Our Cousin after Glen. It was a few races and Reg was hooked.
Miss Kabana, another of the litter, won 20 races including a Wentworth Park victory, the first metropolitan win for Bill Northfield as an owner.
Bruce and Gwen Edwards trained her for me, said Bill. We also sent Gwen a pup from the litter which she named Glees Farewell. Bruce was a great friend and he did just about everything in dogs. Hed go anywhere for a race. And he was a bookie as well.
Coup Kabana was another of the litter and he would win at the Gabba.
Glee Kabana almost gave Bill a memorable victory.
The bitch started in the very first race at the Gabba on opening night, April 6, 1972.
She led by six lengths into the straight but just couldnt run out the 610m yards and finished third to Jaffrine, said Bill.
Jaffrine, trained by the legendary Stan Cleverley, ran 33.42 to win by two lengths Glee Kabana was a neck away in third.
Glee Kabana had broken a leg when she was four months old and I almost put her down, said Bill.
Dad said to give her a chance. He reasoned if the litter was good, we could always use her as a broodbitch. She came good alright.
Pop Northfield died on July 5, 1973, the 15th wedding anniversary of Bill and Colleen.
I remember our wedding because Happy Beaver won his maiden a few days after we were married, said Bill.
The Grafton Carnival has always been a highlight for NSW, and most often Queensland and Victorian dog men, for many, many decades. Bill and Colleen have celebrated many a wedding anniversary at a July carnival in Grafton.
He usually buys me a pie at the Grafton dogs on our wedding anniversary, joked Colleen.
By the late 1970s Bill got his biggest break in greyhound racing when son Mitchell decided to buy two pups he had seen advertised in the Greyhound Recorder.
By Ungwilla Lad-Newmores Secret, Mitchell bought two, a dog and a bitch. Mike McDiarmid had bred them. Second dam Secretly had been Bob Doaks foundation bitch and is still regarded as one of the legends of the industry.
The dog was named Newmore Glow and his claim to fame was that he won a maiden at Lismore when Frosty Lee had been backed as though the race was over, yet fell when 20 lengths in front and only a few metres from the finishing line.
The bitch was named Pretty New.
She was a pup and I won a maiden with her at the Grafton carnival, said Bill. If you could win over the Grafton carnival in those days, you could go straight to Sydney and win. I knew I had something.
Pretty New would go to Brisbane to be trained by Reg Hazelgrove.
It was too difficult for me to go anywhere with dogs in those days, said Bill. We were milking cows twice a day, were farming the property as well and Colleen and I had five kids as well.
So Pretty New went to Reg and won the Qld Futurity at the Gabba.
It is interesting that Pretty News sire Ungwilla Lad carried a double of the famous Spotted Lightning, and another cross of his dam Flighty Moon through her daughter Mary Wanda.
We had Flighty Moon, a stakes bitch around Lismore when to be a stakes runner there meant you were really something, and she was about to whelp her litter to Magic Lightning for my brother-in-law Jack Lollback, said Bill.
Flighty Moon whelped a day after she went home and among the litter was Spotted Lightning.
When Pretty New won the Futurity it was the first feature race win for Bill and his own family. Absolutely brilliant, said Bill of the victory. We really got carried away.
Pretty New was a high class race bitch. The Futurity is now a Group 2 event and it has been a breed shaper among the industry for years, none more than that year.
Bill headed off to the Grafton carnival in 1981 and spotted a couple of hot youngsters, both by Tangaloa the Australian Cup and Melbourne Cup winner. One was Kununurra.
I reckoned he was going to be a pretty good sire after seeing those pups, so I put Pretty New to him, said Bill. I sent her down by train and she came home and had 10 pups.
Whelped on May 22, 1982, the litter would include Pretty Short, Rustic Venture, Dark Pretender, Pretty Whiskers, New Beaut, Newaloa, Rexaloa and Finealoa and what a litter it was.

WHEN Pretty Short was eight months old, Bill Northfield decided to worm him and his littermates.
I had a bottle of Neemas, wormers that looked like little footballs, said Bill. Everyone used them. I had bought a bottle and left them on the dashboard in my car. They melted.
But I just picked up a syringe and loaded a mil or a mil and a half and grabbed the first pup I got to, the little black dog, and put it down his throat.
That pup staggered around the yard gasping for air until he fell unconscious. I raced in and rang the vet who said I should try to get him to lap some milk. When I told him he was unconscious that soon put an end to him lapping at some milk.
In about 20 or 30 minutes his breathing became a bit easier and he got over it.
Ive often thought of getting some Neemas, melting them in the car, and turning one of the pups into another Pretty Short, joked Bill.
Bill, Colleen and Mitchell educated all the litter themselves and couldnt get over how easy they were, firstly to rear, and then to educate.
When Doug Seeto came down to pick up his dog and bitch that would race as Dark Pretender and Rustic Venture, I told him he could take them anywhere right then and they would win a maiden, and that was without any training, said Bill.
To say the litter was outstanding is an understatement that does none of them justice.
Rustic Venture, raced by Doug Seeto and trained by Peter Denaro, won the Melbourne Cup and Qld Futurity. She was runner-up in a memorable Coca-Cola Cup at the Gabba to champion National Lass.
When she won the Futurity she downed her litter sister Pretty Whiskers with New Beaut in fourth. Seetos other star Dark Pretender was a top grade dog wherever he went throughout the country and eventually stood at stud in the US.
New Beaut and Newaloa made a number of feature finals and were multiple Gabba winners for Reg and Noela Hazelgrove.
Rexaloa finished second to Pretty Short in three consecutive finals when they were pups, one beaten a nose. Bill eventually sold him to Stan Cleverley who never won a race with the dog.
Butg the undoubted star was Pretty Short.
He would eventually start 88 times for 58 wins, 12 seconds and four thirds. He held seven track records, one just for a week.
We called him Shorty because he had to get the end of his tail off. He kept wagging it and knocking it on something, said Bill.
He raced at 31kgs and had his first start at Casino on October 11, 1983 at just 17 months old. He drew the rails in a heat of the Pop Northfield Maiden at Casino and won. He won the final as well.
By December 10 he had run his first track record, a 22.65 at Grafton and beat three Harold Park winners in the race.
Eventually he would break track records 13 times, his own three times at Grafton and twice at Casino.
The Gabba 558m was just too far for him, said Bill. He only had two starts over 558m and fell once.
But it didnt stop Pretty Short piling up feature race wins and track records. The records were Grafton 302m 17.25, 402m 22.53, 475m 26.56, Casino 411m 23.44, 484m 27.70 and Lismore 402m 22.90. He also ran class records at Wentworth Park 30.92 and the Gabba 24.19.
Pretty Short won two Lawnton Cups, a Lawnton Sprint Championship, the NSW Country Championship at Wentworth Park, the Lawnton Presidents Cup, Grafton Premiers Cup, South Grafton Cup, the Pop Northfield and won numerous country track feature races.
He also finished second twice in the Queensland Cup at Beenleigh.
He went for 12 months and couldnt get a start at Casino, said Bill.
Pretty Short won from every box at least three times. He won on 10 different tracks and five times he won on the same program as one of his pups.
Nine times he was within .11 of a track record and 48 of his wins were in the best of the day.
He served 87 bitches while he was still racing for 450 pups. On the night his first race starter, Beaut Venture won on debut for owner-trainer Greg Cannon, Pretty Short won the Lawnton Sprint Championship in 20.89.
Beaut Venture ran the second best of the night with a 21.21 victory. Pretty Short was not even two years old when he served Beaut Ventures dam Simple Test.
Ross Stiller from the local vet clinic checked him over all his life, said Bill. He always said Pretty Short had no pain barrier. His only injury was the removal of the first joint of a toe and the end of his tail.
One regret Bill had was that Pretty Short never got to contest a Grafton Cup.
But without Reg Hazelgrove the champion might never have won his first Lawnton Cup.
Hed run at the Gabba over 558m and just couldnt last it, said Bill. I was talking to Reg and Noela after the race and they suggested I put him into the Lawnton cup. The nominations closed the next morning.
Noela filled out the nomination for me at the Gabba that night and Reg took it to the Control Board office. He won.
Pretty Short was chasing his third Lawnton Cup in succession but was beaten a head for second in the heat and missed getting a start in the final. Bill tossed him in the Sprint Championship the next week and he won, just missing Miss Perlitas track record.
His 50th race win was on the Casino Clubs 50th anniversary.
During one stretch of races in 1984 he won 17 of 18 starts and retired having won 11 of his final 12 starts.
By the time Bill retired Pretty Short to full time stud duties, the dog was already a stud success. Champions like New Tears, Whip Tip, Pretty Fearless to name just three, made him a household name around the country.
He only served about 480 bitches and he knew exactly when every one of them was ready to serve, said Bill. He served one bitch on the 27th day and produced a bitch called Impressive Deb who won a heap of races at the Gabba.
Bill saw the desperation of many broodbitches owners who needed to use Pretty Short at stud. Several times bitches were flown in to Brisbane, driven straight to our home at Stratheden, served by Pretty Short, and then flown straight back to New Zealand, he said.
One owner drove his bitch from Adelaide and had her mated. He said he had another bitch at home and would bring her back when she came in season. When he arrived home two days later she was on, so he turned around and drove back here with that one.
After wed finished the second bitch, the guy said have a good look at me because I wont come back for a while.
Bill believes Kael Monaro was the fastest dog Pretty Short sired. Bob Doaks star could win at the Gabba even running on the outside of the track.
He says his biggest thrill was winning the Country Championship at Wentworth Park.
Pretty Short went to stand stud in Sydney with Don McMillan in the latter part of his stud career. He came home at 12 and died of cancer of a front leg. Bill and Colleen buried him on their property.
While that might have been enough for anyone, Bill was only getting started.
He and son Mitchell and nephew Brad were at the inaugural Ipswich Auction. Pretty Short had plenty of pups for sale including some from former star Gabba staying bitch Lady Creole.
David Smith from Tenterfield had a dog pup that had not made the auction. Mitchell and Brad bought him privately from David after the sale, said Bill. Brad was barred from having dogs at the time and he didnt tell his wife Lyn.
I think he gave her a bit of a hint when he said she should start clearing out the pigeon lofts, said Bill. Mitchell would buy Brad out (Brad would get his chance at dogs later on) and would name his pup Coomerang Chief.
The first day they got him home, Mitchell and Brad took him to a nearby paddock for a gallop but as soon as they let him go they couldnt catch him again, said Bill. He was very timid.
Coomerang Chief would go on to win 30 races, 23 under Bills training including the Lismore, Casino and Grafton Cups, and run second in the Lawnton Cup and third in the Tweed Galaxy.
He dropped a back muscle but when he got over that we sent him south and he won at Richmond and Bulli and ran a placing in the Surf Life Savers Cup at Wenty.
Bill kept charging on.
Coomerang Chiefs littermates included Sandown Cup winner Western Creole and Ipswich distance record holder Fiery Creole.
In 1991, Bill produced a dog by Pretty Short-Tail Wind which he would call Leon Mal. I got two pups out of the litter and one of them was Leon Mal.
He won 10 at Wentworth Park including the Vic Peters and St Leger and went to Invitation class at the track while trained by McMillan. He came home to stand at stud and served only six bitches on the Northern Rivers, four of the litters producing city winners.
He eventually went back to McMillan for stud but did not attract a lot of bitches.
Bill entertained the entire Northfield family at a huge party on the property after Leon Mals Vic Peters victory.
In the early 1990s, Bills dogs won 27 races at Wentworth Park in just one year.
Gambling Fred was sold by us for $12,000 as a youngster, but the owner later asked if we would buy him back so Donny McMillan and I went halves in him. He finished third in the National Derby.
He fondly remembers a dog called Pretty Dark from the second Tangaloa-Pretty new litter.
He had the rails in a race at Bulli one night, had gone about 30 metres and jumped the inside running rail, said Bill. He charged along the inside of the track but jumped back onto the track at the home turn.
He got back to the lead only to be caught in the final few strides.
Because of Pretty Darks antics, stewards disqualified him and placed him last. That made him beaten 45 lengths in the race because another runner had almost fallen and was tailed off.
So when he lined up at Goulburn at his next start, his form read that he had finished last at Bulli beaten 45 lengths, said Bill. We all got on at 4-1 and he won.
In December, 1991 Bill took Gamble Son to Grafton.
Terry Bailey was calling the race which had only five dogs in it, said Bill. Our bloke copped a check at the turn out of the back straight but flashed home to get second.
The margins were a nose by a triple dead heat.
That old joke about some people would go to the opening of a envelope could almost apply to Bill Northfield. Hes been to the opening night of so many racetracks hes lost count.
And he has the racebooks to prove it.
He declares Chief Havoc is the best dog he has seen by a furlong.
My brother-in-law Jack Lollback owned Banfort who held the Casino track record at 23.80 at the time, but Chief Havoc ran 23.30, said Bill. He also turned in the boxes the day he broke the record at Casino but had righted himself by the time they opened.
They couldnt get a run for him at Wentworth Park or Harold Park, he was that good.
In more recent times, Bill and Colleen have scaled right back.
They raced Miss Cunnen (Head Honcho-Brindle County) who won 42 races for the kennel and a track record of 22.57 at Casino. She broke Wigan Bales first section record at Lismore as well.
We had a lot of good dogs over the years, like Pretty Pendle who won seven of his first 11 and it should have been eight only a plover attacked him in the home straight, said Bill.
Another was Pretty Boots who won five at Wentworth Park and two at Harold Park.
Bill only ever had six dogs in training at any one time. His kennels are next to a seven-acre galloping paddock. Those dogs went out in that paddock together morning and night, said Bill. Weve got a 300 metre straight and well drag them up there once a week.
Theres not much to training, he said. Good dogs make good trainers. A good trainer cant make a bad dog win.
He believes the chasing instinct in dogs has diminished today, but the money for winning races has never been better. But I reckon the administrators have never been worse, he said. They are forever trying to cut down on tracks and I dont think that is the way to go.
He and Colleen, the McMillans, Bellamys, Jan Fineran, Benny Howe etc went to the US some years ago on a planned holiday to go greyhound racing.
We had a good couple of weeks but the dog racing is not as good as in Australia, he said.
Today Bill is retired. There are a few cattle on the property and Bill sells the heifers at about eight or nine months. He plans to keep two of his Knocka Norris-Pretty Jacklyn litter.
Bills rearing routine is open the gate and let them go. The 201 acre property has only a few fences to keep the cattle in. Champions have been reared in that manner for decade after decade.
Every Monday night Bill and five others play cards. One of the regulars, Allan Faulkner, and Bill have been mates since school. Their mothers knew each other before they were married.
He and Colleen look over their family and see a great one. The Northfield name will live on for generations to come, and greyhounds will always be a part of their life.
We have a granddaughter Kristen who is 10 and she has already declared shes getting greyhounds when she gets older, said Colleen.
What else would she want?