TWENTY five years ago in February (the 23rd to be exact), a brindle pup was born that would initially change the face of greyhound racing in this country and eventually the world.
He was Brother Fox, a son of Little Blade-Pitstock Park, bred by Noel Hiscock and snapped up as soon as he could by Steve Kavanagh and a bunch of mates from Dubbo.
Is it 25 years?, asked Kavanagh. It seems like just yesterday.
Maybe thats Steve wishing it was yesterday and he was reliving those heady days of when Brother Fox swept all before him on the racetrack and then became such a huge influence at stud that he would have more than 30 sons at stud.
The impact on the stud scene in Ireland of the sons of his grandson Head Honcho has stretched Brother Foxs influence even further.
Kavanagh remembers clearly the move to buy pups from the Little Blade-Pitstock Park litter.
My great mate Ron Brown had two pups from the dams first litter, by Wild Port, and they were going very well, said Steve.
Those two were Acacia Park and Mr Biggles. Theyd started winning but were about to hit the big time and Brown and Kavanagh thought theyd get some from the second litter before that happened.
They were about eight to 10 weeks old and I left it for Brownie to pick out a pup for me, said Steve.
The brindle pup that was to be Brother Fox never left Brownie alone.
But the pup peed on Brownies boot, so he said to himself Steve can have that one.
It would become Brother Fox. He cost $550.
I got him home and reared him with a couple of pups that were three or four weeks older than him. That didnt worry him because he was a big pup. We gave him the kennelname of Jumbo, said Steve.
He grew into a really good sort of young dog, a quiet nature and he did everything right from the moment we started to work on him.
Jumbo went away to be broken in by Bryce Stuckey at Cudal (Dennis Barnes runs the breaking-in complex now) when he was 12 months old. He went early because he was going with those other pups who were a month older, said Steve.
I remember he came home running 19.40. It was nice without being sensational.
(Brother Fox would go back to that track during his race career and be clocked at 18.28.)
Steve brought in a few mates as shareholders in the dog. They are, Bob McCloughan who has been a long-time bookie at the Gold Coast, Lou Dougherty, Peter Baker and Ray Davis.
By 15 months Brother Fox was on fire.
I was going down to visit Brownie and I took Brother Fox to Richmond for a trial at 15 months and he went sensational, said Steve.
The dogs first start was in a 402m maiden at Grafton on July 10, 1984. Starting 1-2 favourite, Brother Fox won by 16 lengths and ran 22.95 earning the princely sum of $50.
I remember he slipped on the mat coming out of the boxes but still won by 16 lengths, said Steve.
The boys were offered $25,000 for him immediately after the race.
We knew he was pretty good obviously and we decided he was not for sale, said Steve.
It didnt stop offers flooding in, even up to $150,000 from George De Costi of the famous seafood business in Sydney.
The offer was even shown on TV with reporters flying in via helicopter just before the dog raced in the Richmond Derby final in May 1985. That too was refused.
After that maiden win, Brother Fox demolished feature races, race and track records and generally broke the hearts of anything who wanted to take him on.
After only his sixth race start he trialled the Harold Park track record.
He smashed the world record running 25.82 when winning the Vic Peters in November 1984. By January he had added the Potential Stakes race record at Wentworth Park running 30.65 winning the final by 13 lengths.
He then went to Tasmania to win the Hobart Thousand and break the track record twice running 28.21 in his semi-final win scoring by 11 lengths. His winning margins during that series totaled 28 lengths.
The Bi-Annual Classic at Harold Park fell in April 1985 and then came the Richmond Derby.
He beat Rapid Supreme by 15 lengths in his heat and ran 31.35 in the Richmond Derby, said Steve. Then came the TV offer on race final eve.
Brother Fox was never out of trouble in the final. Rapid Supreme, later to be a fine sire himself and an outstanding race dog, won that final in 31.88 with Brother Fox flashing up late for third.
Which led to the Tweed Heads Galaxy series of 1985.
I was busy at home so Ronnie Brown brought him up for me to the Tweed, said Steve. Brother Fox was clocked to run 22.95. The slowest clock got him running 23.09 so thats what we all went with, said Steve.
The champ tore a pin in his heat and finished third.
He was to have only one more race, a third to Daisy Emm at Harold Park in Invitation class two months later.
He tore his webbing in the race and sprung a toe. By then the phone was running absolutely hot and we could not keep racing him. He has to go to stud. We had a committee meeting and that was that.
Thats when the nightmare of a stud career started.
Steve remembers sitting at home each night and listening to the answering machine chock full of messages from breeders wanting to use Brother Fox at stud.
When he was racing I got some amazing offers to use him at stud, but we were never going to use him while he was racing, he said. But when he did go to stud, I was getting offers of double the service fee and more.
He served more than 800 bitches.
A measure of his success was that the first five track record holders at the Parklands track were all his sons, Brother Black, West Cape, Bogenfel, Carnival Boy and Bjorn.
Steve reckons Worth Doing was his best offspring, but says Key Dancer and the litter brothers Amerigo Man and West Cape were not far behind.
As a race dog, Steve has not had any faster ever.
I rate Hot To Rumble the closest to him, he said.
I reckon if Parklands had been racing at the time of Brother Fox he could have run 24.90 around there, based on what he ran on tracks in the south and compared to other dogs that won at the Coast.
Brother Foxs combined winning margins were 113 lengths and he won 15 races in such a short career.
I only raced him twice at Wentworth Park and he won the final of the Potential Stakes by 13 lengths off the one box and knocked three down at the first turn pushing up to get to the front.
But Brother Fox publically trialled some unbelievable times.
We kept a list of his special trials and it makes for interesting reading, said Steve. He ran 26.00 at Harold Park which was the record, 26.09 at Singleton and 30.86 at Wentworth Park.
He also ran 29.48 at Dubbo, 23.16 at Richmond and the 23.09 at Tweed.
He raced at 34.8kgs.
Brother Fox died in his sleep one night not long after Steve had moved to Kingsclife on the north coast of NSW.
Almost every day after we moved up there, I would take him out and free gallop him on the beach, he said. One day during his gallop he seemed to strain himself. He died that night.
Steve sprinkled Brother Foxs ashes on the beach at Kingsclife.