It takes a special greyhound to win a group 1. To come from last and score at the highest level? Well that’s stuff legends are made of.
Two decades after his retirement, Rapid Journey remains among the sport’s most decorated chasers. A brilliant, tenacious chaser, Rapid Journey completed one of the most remarkable 12 months of racing in 1998.
‘Carl’ – named after track and field legend Carl Lewis – began his racing career with a flurry in 1997 winning six of his first seven starts and by the end of that year had established himself as one of the country’s brightest prospects.
However few could have foreseen Rapid Journey becoming one of the most prolific feature race winners in the history of the sport.
Starting with the Adelaide Cup in January, Rapid Journey would go on to win the Golden Easter Egg, Perth Cup, National Sprint Championship and Melbourne Cup before rounding out the year – and his storied career – with victory in the Topgun.
But of all those history making victories, there was one that stood above all others.
“The National Sprint title,” John Carruthers told TABradio.
“When they went through the first turn he was last and I just put my head down. I thought, ‘well I hope he can run fourth or fifth or something rather than run last.’
What happened next will be long be remembered by all who saw it.
“As the race went on it was just unbelievable what happened. There’s people even today say it was the greatest win they’ve ever seen. And they weren’t ordinary dogs in the race, you know? There was record holders and champion dogs of the time, so it was a great win and I think it’s one of his greatest wins ever.”
Even today, WA race caller Peter O’Neill remains amazed at the brilliance and tenacity ‘Carl’ showed on that September evening.
“Oh, I’ve never forgotten,” he said.
“One of my favourites of the time was (Western Australian champion) Reggemite. I just had a love affair with the dog – I’ve actually got a statue of Reggemite in my calling box at Cannington – that’s how much I love the dog.
“Rapid Journey gave him lengths coming to the home corner and just went straight past him. It was phenomenal.”
Rapid Journey won on every mainland metropolitan track and recorded four track records among his 33 career wins. He finished with $530,995 in prize money – an Australian record that would stand for more than 12 years – and was inducted into the Australian Greyhound Racing Hall of Fame.
Click here for the latest news on the 2018 Crocmedia National Championships.
Paw note: Had he won the six races mentioned above in 2018, Rapid Journey would have netted $1,122,000 in prize money from those feature finals alone!
Rapid Journey (wearing the brown number 6 rug) comes from last to score an epic win in the 1998 National Sprint Championship
