When Flip Bale stormed home to win race 8 at Sandown Park on Thursday night, the cheers in the betting ring were drowned out by the roar in the dining room.
More than 40 members of the Royal Park Football Netball Club made the three hour bus trip from Maryborough in the state’s west to the Lightwood Road venue to participate in the Footy Club Challenge, a fundraising series for community sporting clubs run by the Sandown Greyhound Racing Club.
With each participating club drawing a greyhound in the night’s feature race, Royal Park drew the Graeme Bate trained Flip Bale.
Wearing the black and white striped vest from box 2, the white and black dog was slow out of the boxes and was a clear last past the post the first time. However the leviathan 39.4kg chaser, described by his handler Joe Briffa as ‘a big teddy bear,’ railed strongly and when a gap opened on the home turn he swept to the lead to win by half a length.
The win netted Royal Park a $1000 cheque, however that money will soon find its way to a more noble cause.
“We’re donating everything we make this season to charity rather than paying players,” said Royal Park FNC President Justin Broad.
Following a season in which the club won just one game and fought off talks of a merger, the club decided to try something different in 2012.
“We’ve got a lot of members who are affected by cancer so we’ve decided to try and help out where we can. The players and supporters have been right behind it, so many people work hard to raise funds and we decided that donating the money rather paying players would be a better way to spend our fundraising efforts,” said Broad
The change to the club’s fundraising philosophy has been a boon for the club, lifting the club’s profile and increasing its membership base, and has also seen several new sponsors get behind the club. However the real winners have been Cancer Council of Victoria and the palliative care unit at Maryborough District Health Service, who have each received a $5000 donation from the club.
The Club is promising further donations throughout the season. Their night at Sandown Park provided a welcome boost to the Club’s fundraising efforts – the club raised over $1600 for the night – and also gave its members a night out they won’t forget anytime soon.
“It’s been fantastic, we’re rapt,” said Broad, who organised the function primarily as a social night out for his players and members.
“This is my first time at the greyhounds and the facility is outstanding. All of the boys are really happy and are already keen to come back.”
Royal Park will be back to the Footy Club Challenge Final, which will see the Tigers join the winners of other Challenge days to compete for up to $5000 in prizes.
The Footy Club Challenge series is made possible with the assistance of the Victorian State Government’s Raceday Attraction Program.
