Azzopardi was up at 5am on Wednesday, getting feed ready for his dogs before they have some exercise. His mate and fellow trainer Alan Proctor drops in for a chat. They talk dogs, not the politics around the sport.
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“I’m down here by 20 past five in the morning getting their food ready. By the time you put them out and clean up their poo, the morning is done,” Azzopardi said. “We will race at Richmond [on Wednesday] and still be going with them until late.
“Then I’ll get up and do it again in the morning, I love it.”
Azzopardi bought his property for $70,000 at the beginning of the century, and now places around his property are “in the threes” – $3 million. But he is not ready to move.
There is plenty of space out the back where a couple of six-month-old pups play in the yard, the next generation of the operation.
“You are always planning for the future,” Azzopardi said.
There are a couple of houses on the property and even the kennel is a double-brick building, which was intended to be flat for humans rather than dogs.
“I built this place so it could be converted into a flat. That was 24 years ago and I haven’t needed to change it yet,” he said. “I’m going to keep doing this [training] for a while yet.”
Source Agencies
