Juventus, Tonsils and Cheap Wine - That's Sandro's Story

A bout of tonsilitis, a physio for Italian football giant Juventus, and a $1 bottle of red wine. An interesting mix but together they are a story behind the favourite for tonight’s $500,000 Ladbrokes 715.

Each has played a role in Sandro Bechini having a greyhound named Valpolicella running in the world’s richest distance event at The Gardens in Newcastle this evening.

Sandro’s journey began as an eight-year-old when his younger sister had tonsilitis, with his mother by her bedside.

“My dad was looking after me and one of his mates came over and said what are we going to do? Why don’t we go to the dogs,” Sandro explained. “My dad said: “I can’t, I’ve got my son here”, but his mate said: “bring him along”.

“I’d never been before, but off we went to Harold Park and when you walked in, through the tunnel and into the stands and see the track all lit up, my eyes were like dishes. Dad took me to look at the dogs parading and I was hooked.”

Sandro’s father had owned a few dogs previously but when he ventured into bookmaking a few years later, fielding on the dogs at places like Lithgow, young Sandro became further hooked. 

“One of my grandfather’s friends was a fellow by the name of Enzo Federici. He came from Italy and was actually the Juventus physio back in the day,” Sandro explained. “He came here and made a new life after the war, and he was coaching soccer and won a few premierships with North Sydney Inter. 

“He got too old for it but to keep himself fit he wanted to be involved in sport so he got himself a couple of greyhounds and taught himself to do that.

“He was a fantastic trainer and his dogs were super fit and I used to see him at the track and I was itching to get involved, and he more or less became my mentor.

“I started with a couple of dogs and I had some reasonable success. I had one bitch Allegrezza and she won about 18 races for me - Tony Zammit (Valpolicella’s trainer) would have won 60 with her. She was a good stayer. She won the Rooty Hill Gold Cup at PENRITH, won at Harold Park, and she got me through university.”

Sandro was in and out of the sport from that time but like everyone was always looking for and hoping for that really good one. She came along with the mating of Shima Shine and Sandro’s broodbitch Saldana in May 2021. 

“I had tried to breed a dog like her for a long time. She broke in well but not as well as her mother had but her run home was very strong so I had it in my head she would make a distance dog at some point. I never would have expected what she has done so far, it’s just amazing to be honest.”

Valpolicella has won 25 of her 47 starts including Group 1 victories in the Gold Cup in Brisbane and the Zoom Top in Melbourne in February, and victory tonight would take her prizemoney to the edge of $1 million. 

But back to the $1 bottle of red.

“My dad owned a wine shop in Leichhardt and back in the late 1980s an importer who was going into liquidation came to dad wanting to sell his wine and get something for it. 

“He wanted cash so my father offered him a$1 a bottle not expecting him to take it, but he did and my father got 50,000 bottles. 

“He put them in the bargain basket and sold them for $5 bottle. They were retailing for $12 a bottle.

“A lot of it was this Italian wine called Valpolicella and I thought what a great name for a dog. My father said we got such a good deal on the wine and made a lot of money out of it at the time, that he said if you ever name a dog Valpolicella, make sure it’s a good one.

“I waited and waited and then found one worthy of the name, but without Tony training her and the way he looks after her … put it this way, she was born good, but she wouldn’t be as good without his care and attention.

“Good dogs make good trainers, but great trainers make champions.”