Who's The Topgun?
Not too long ago it seemed Victorian greyhounds would dominate all feature racing events, but what a great testimony to the NSW industry that four greyhounds from our State - half the field - were selected this week for the Group 1 invitational sprint event, The Topgun.
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Congratulations and the very best of luck to the connections of Zipping Kyrgios, Wow, Jungle Deuce and Bandit Ned who were all selected to take part in the $150,000 feature on November 6 at The Meadows. And the same for the NSW distance stars in the $75,000 Group 1 Topgun Stayers, with Stanley Road, Miss Ezmae and Super Estrella flying the flag for the State on the same night.
Therapeutic
What a wonderful story this week around a dog called Duker's Diesel who contested the Maitland Futures Stars Final on Monday.
Owner-trainer Jennifer Chandler's six-year-old son Isaac was terrified of dogs, so in an attempt to overcome the fear, she took Isaac to a Greyhounds As Pets NSW adoption day.
The dogs were friendly and Isaac even patted one, but they were a bit big for him, so Jennifer and her husband Jordan decided to buy him a greyhound pup instead.
They bought two 18-week-old pups from a litter and raised them on their property at Bulga near Singleton. When the pups were old enough Jennifer took out a trainer's licence, and the pups now race as Duker's Diesel the other Duker's Chief.
Phoenix Rising
I promised last week that it would be a revolutionary way that Greyhound Racing NSW would select the greyhound to race in its slot for the $750,000 TAB Phoenix, and the feedback we have received already since announcing it yesterday, has been incredibly positive.
We could have staged a series similar to the Million Dollar Chase and offered the winner the slot along with some prizemoney, but that wouldn't have raised any awareness outside of our industry.
What we have done by allowing the public to vote on which dog represents GRNSW is not only a first for the sport, but also offering the chance for a member of the public to win $50,000 is certain to gain interest outside of greyhound racing.
We're very excited about it, and know the greyhound voted as "The People's Dog" will do GRNSW, and the people of NSW, proud come December 18.
To The Moon
We recently looked at some stats around the amount of travel our participants do each year, and while COVID-19 has impacted the past 18 months, back in 2019, NSW greyhound trainers travelled a staggering 8,256,945 kilometres to race. The equivalent of 21 trips to the moon.
This article was produced as part of an ACM partnership with Greyhound Racing NSW.
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