Outstanding greyhound racing, innovative promotions and loads of fun highlighted a memorable 2012 at Sandown Park.
The club ran 1198 races in 2012, with the club’s 11 black type races concentrated around the club’s May and November carnivals. These carnivals, carrying more than $1.5million in prize money, attracted the best greyhounds from around Australia.
Western Australia’s staying phenom Miata headlined the revamped May carnival and she soon captured the hearts and minds of Australia’s racing public and introduced the sport of greyhound racing to whole new audience. While in Melbourne, Miata and her young trainer Paul Stuart met equine great Black Caviar as part of a Herald Sun photo shoot and raced an MX-5 as part of a Fox Footy promotion. The club later offered up that MX-5 to a patron if she was successful in the Australia’s richest race for stayers, the RSN Sandown Cup.
Her first start at Sandown Park saw her defeat Thrilling Brat in torrential rain in one of the races of the year, the Lizrene. A fortnight later she returned to smash the 715m track record by an incredible six lengths in her RSN Sandown Cup heat, however she uncharacteristically missed the start in the final and had to settle for third behind Irma Bale. Rather than the MX-5, the Club gave away a Mazda 2.
Having earlier won the Group 3 Launching Pad with Five Paws, Norm Rinaldi claimed his second Group race win for the year when General Destini claimed the Group 2 Berwick Mazda Harrison-Dawson. Rinaldi bred a litter from each of two broodbitches he brought back with him after a holiday in America, and remarkably, the 22 resulting pups have all won a race.
On the same night, the Group 1 Macro Meats Sapphire Crown was won by Peggy May, providing just a hint of what was set to become an amazing run of success for Pearcedale trainer Jason Thompson.
May also saw the arrival of David Hirst’s excitement machine Fabregas. After winning on debut in May, by August Fabregas had not only remained undefeated in eight starts at headquarters, but was the Group 1 National Sprint Champion.
Hot off his Group 1 Vic Peters win at Wentworth Park, Proven Nitro was a somewhat controversial selection in the $50,000 winner-takes-all Macro Meats Shootout. However the black speed machine repaid the faith shown by the race’s selectors to win a thrilling duel with Don’t Knocka Him in a stunning 29.13 seconds.
Earlier in the year, the club announced its flagship event, the Melbourne Cup, would carry a record $500,000 in prize money, making it the richest greyhound event ever run in Australia. TAB joined the Club as race sponsor and guaranteed a $500,000 quaddie pool on Cup night. The pool eventually surpassed $550,000 to be the biggest ever held on a greyhound meeting. Continuing the $500,000 theme, the club gave one patron the chance to win $500,000 cash just by being track side, and one in 8 patrons on Cup night won $25 mystery bets.
In front of the biggest crowd seen in recent memory, a stellar field assembled for the final which saw the smallest greyhound to contest the series, Got A Moment, score a memorable win. The least fancied of Thompson’s three runners, Got A Moment had been running in graded races at Ipswich just 10 weeks earlier. Got A Moment showed her win was no fluke when just a fortnight later, she returned to her home track Albion Park to win the Group 1 Gold Cup and give Thompson his 10th Group race winner for the year.
If ever there was crowd pleasing victory, it came earlier on Cup night when Miata made amends for her RSN Sandown Cup defeat by sweeping home to defeat Jethro in the Group 1 Solo Bold Trease. It was her fourth Group 1 win for 2012 all but securing Greyhound Of The Year honours.
Graeme Bate had the most winners at the track for 2012, finishing the year with 125 wins from 661 runners, a strike rate of 18.91%. He finished the year in style when Gunda Bale – at a price of $29.70 – secured the AGRA Hall Of Fame trainer his fifth Macro Meats Laurels Classic. His versatile bitch Irma Bale also won the Club’s Greyhound Of The Year award after winning a feature race over each of the Club’s three racing distances to finish the year with six wins from 11 starts, two Group race wins and more than $165,000 in prize money at Sandown Park alone.
While Bate again enjoyed a successful season at Sandown Park, 2012 again showed that smaller kennels can also thrive under greyhound racing’s brightest lights.
Cranbourne trainer Jim Redenbach finished the year as the trainer with best strike rate (of trainers with at least 25 starters), finishing the year with 14 winners from 34 runners at a remarkable strike rate of 41.2%. David Hirst (10 from 14) and John Norden (10 from 17) also enjoyed considerable success from limited runners.
In fact, there was an incredible 274 different trainers who lead home a winner at Australia’s premier track in 2012, proving that everyone has a chance to taste success in town.
The popular Sunday-Thursday series is a great opportunity to get a taste of racing in the city, and trainers including Lorraine Harrowfield, Peter Presutto and David Minarelli just some of the trainers to take advantage of the fantastic prize money on offer.
Sunday 2 December will be a day the Britton family will remember for years to come, when Jeff Britton arrived at the track with five runners and departed with five winners. Remarkably, his partner Angela Langton also saluted with her only runner, and his brother Robert trained a brace of winners.
Off the track, more than 100 sporting and community clubs took part in a Club Challenge day, which saw their members not only enjoy a great day’s greyhound racing, but take home more than $20,000 in prize money.
The Club ran two family nights – one the night before Good Friday, the other on Macro Meats Shootout night – that saw hundreds of kids become an ‘Owner For The Day’, race to ‘Beat The Bunny,’ play laser tag, oppa Gangnam Style, and take home show bags and heaps of prizes.
Afghan racing, $2 day, Cosentino and casino games were just some of the other on course promotions throughout 2012, and the Club looks forward to adding more in the new year.
The Club built a new semaphore board, new winning post, new camera angles and improved its overall presentation of the track, confirming its status as Australia’s premier greyhound racing facility.
The club would to extend its thanks to all who have made 2012 a memorable one, including Greyhound Racing Victoria, the State Government of Victoria, our sponsors TAB, Macro Meats, Berwick Mazda, Schweppes Australia, SKY Racing, RSN – Racing and Sport and Grenda Transit Management, and to the wonderful trainers who have supported the club throughout the year.
