Remembering Dairyland Greyhound Park's Dan Chandler

Dairyland Greyhound Park's Ohboompowsuprise now stands at the threshold of establishing a new track record for the Kenosha, Wisconsin dog track. Surprise just won her eleventh race in a row on August 12th, an eight length destruction of her peers, and is tied with a former Dairyland great for the most consecutive triumphs. I have expounded on the virtues of Ohboompowsuprise several times, so I would like to talk about the greyhound with which she now shares this standard, a multiple stakes winner at Dairyland Greyhound Park that went by the name of Dan Chandler.

Dan Chandler was a brindle male out of Wincarnis and Chandler, a May 1989 product of that breeding. Dan Chandler came to Dairyland in late February of 1991 as a Grade C dog. It took the 69 pound racer a couple of starts to feel comfortable on the racing surface, but once he was he flew up the grading ladder to Grade A, winning three lower grade starts in a row in late March. Once in the upper echelon of Dairyland, Dan Chandler excelled, winning eleven Grade A tilts in a two month period before being entered in a sprint stakes in which he failed to advance to the finals. He then came back strong, not winning as regularly as he had, but almost always making the ticket in A company.

On January 9th of 1992, Dan Chandler came from fifth to get up by a neck over Jock Boomer, the start of a seven race winning streak that came to a halt on Lincoln's Birthday when he encountered trouble on both turns over the 1,650 foot sprint. He bounced right back to win by a dozen and then by six, setting up a two dog match race with 1991 Futurity champ Demanden. Chandler won this pairing by a single length in thrilling fashion; Demanden himself had once won eight races in a row at the Wisconsin facility.

He was not an absolutely dominating type of greyhound; the great closer Frontier Drive always had Dan Chandler's number, beating him whenever they hooked up. Chandler was a capable come-from-behind racer that also had the ability to go the front, traits which served him well once he started his consecutive wins streak on July 26th of 1992. In that first race, he waltzed to a blowout victory and then proceeded to keep winning until he finally lost on September 13th in race number thirteen, a double whammy that cannot be overlooked. During his streak, Chandler had just one close call, in the second contest when he came from fourth to win by just half a length. Once the run ended, Dan Chandler stayed hot, running a 30.07 over the 550 yards on October 2nd, the fastest time of his career.

On New Year's Day of 1993, Dan Chandler drew the one hole for the Dairyland Inaugural. Breaking alertly, he rocketed to the front and had no problem with the field, scoring an impressive eight and a half length triumph over some of Dairyland's top sprinters. He spent the month of February involved in a countdown stakes, a format in which eight greyhounds start off and the last place dog each time they run is eliminated. Chandler made it to the finals, but lost there to the talented star, Toe Jammin, in a reversal of his own match race victory earlier in his career. On April 3rd, Chandler won the Final Four Stakes, defeating Speed Contest and Dutch Dillon in a three way affair. He then avenged his loss to Toe Jammin in the Countdown on May Day when he took the Violet Stakes over his nemesis by four lengths in a box to wire effort.

In early June, Dan Chandler won another four in a row, but that came to an end and he won what would be the final race of his life on July 6th when he was nine lengths better than runner-up Midnite Gator. After failing to make the finals of a sprint stakes in August, he ran his last race on August 17th, 1993. Now, ironically, Ohboompowsuprise will more than likely be attempting to break Dan Chandler's record on or around that date. But what Dan Chandler accomplished in his over one-hundred-and-fifty starts should not be forgotten, as he won seventy-two times and ran second twenty-six more, giving his all for the two-and-a-half years he starred at Dairyland Greyhound Park.