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LATEST NEWS
BY GERARD GUTHRIE
Champion sprinter Shima Shine was crowned the Victorian Greyhound of the Year on 19 September, with the event held ‘virtually’ for the second consecutive year. A dual Group 1 winner, Shima Shine was adjudged the best performed Victorian greyhound by the Greyhound of the Year panel for performances for the 2021 Racing Year (1 July 2020 - 30 June 2021). Trained by Andrea Dailly, Shima Shine beat an array of top class greyhounds including Christo Bale, Hard Style Rico, Houdini Boy, Simon Told Helen, Tiggerlong Tonk and Zipping Rambo.
“To tell you the truth, I’m quite speechless and I’m very emotional,” said David Gleeson, who bred and owns Shima Shine in conjunction with friend Bob Cummings. “It’s beyond words. It’s a thrill beyond a thrill. “To win something like this, not in my wildest dreams did I ever think he’d be in a position to get an award of this magnitude. “It would be without a doubt the biggest thrill I’ve ever had in racing. Just sensational. I’m so pleased and humbled by it.” Shima Shine was also anointed the Victorian Sprinter of the Year, while Houdini Boy was judged the Victorian Stayer of the Year.
Below is a full list of all recipients from the 2021 Victorian Greyhound Awards.
VICTORIAN GREYHOUND OF THE YEAR: SHIMA SHINE (ANDREA DAILLY) VICTORIAN SPRINTER OF THE YEAR: SHIMA SHINE (ANDREA DAILLY) VICTORIAN STAYER OF THE YEAR: HOUDINI BOY (KELVYN GREENOUGH) GRV HALL OF FAME: KAREN LEEK (BREEDER, REARER AND TRAINER) GRV HALL OF FAME: FANTA BALE (RACING GREYHOUND) GRV HALL OF FAME: STRAND BELLE (BREEDING GREYHOUND) KEN CARR MEDAL: ROB TESTA (RACE CALLER) NED BRYANT AWARD: KAYLA COTTRELL (TRAINER) GRV BOARD LEADERSHIP AWARD: CYNTHIA O’BRIEN (HEALESVILLE GA MANAGER) GRV CEO WELFARE AWARD: JODI RECHSTEINER (GREYHOUND FOSTER CARER)
For a full wrap of the Victorian Greyhound Awards including video interviews, go to: https://www.grv.org.au/victoriangreyhound-awards/2020-2021/
Locals get $30,000 boost from Sale Greyhound Racing
Sale Greyhound Racing Club has this year donated more than $30,000 to local organisations through its Community Grants Chest.
Among the successful applications was Briagolong Primary School which used the grant money of $2000 to fund a new Gaga Pit. The pit, which is based on an octagon shaped USA recreational concept where players start in a “pit”, hitting and rolling a ball with their hand to eliminate other players, was a school student action initiative.
Brigalong Primary School Principal, Mark Donald said after coming across a Gaga Pit on school camp last year, the school Student Action Team had been on a mission to raise funds for a pit of their own. “Multiple student fundraisers were held, including Winter Warmers and Casual Clothes Days, but without the help of the SGRC Community Chest, we would still be trying to raise the funds,” Mark Donald said “It was exciting to watch the students oversee the building of the pit and take part in their first Gaga game. “It’s a huge thank you to the Sale Greyhound Community Chest for making this possible.” Another happy group which was successful in its application was Gippsland Lakes Roller Derby which benefitted from new skate gear with the funds. This year a total of $30,361 awarded to 10 groups: ■ The Scout Association
■ Stratford Cricket Club
■ Rosedale & Dist. Historical Society ■ Heyfield Vintage Machinery Group ■ Heyfield Bowls Club ■ Maffra Cricket Club
■ Boisdale Briagolong Junior Football Netball Club ■ Gippsland Lakes Roller Derby ■ Wellington Toy Library ■ Briagolong Primary School
Bronwyn Welsh: Taking advantage of the Desexing and Dental Scheme.
BY PHIL WEIR
GRV’s number one priority is the welfare of our greyhounds, both in the industry and in the community. To support participant rehoming efforts, compliance with desexing requirements, and overall greyhound health in retirement, GRV launched a Desexing and Dental Scheme in July, providing funding towards the cost of desexing and dental treatment for retiring and retired pet greyhounds. The announcement the scheme was music to the ears of Mildura hobby trainer Bronwyn Welsh, who has three retired sisters who were prime candidates. The three girls are bona-fide family members. “We’ve had dogs since they were pups. We kept them racing into the veterans because they really enjoy the track, but I don’t like to keep them racing while they get on.” Bronwyn wrote to GRV to express her appreciation. “These three old girls are now over 5 years of age and only finished racing in the last 12 months. I have been involved with them since puppies and never imagined that I would ultimately race and own them in the twilight of their careers.” “Their combined race record includes 34 wins and 95 overall placings with $55,000 in prize money. Quite modest for some trainers but exciting for regional trainers. They’ve earnt their comfy retirement and again my thanks for assisting in giving them a happy, healthy retirement.” “We didn’t plan to breed, but one of the girls, Serene Machine (Banjo Boy x Rustic Reeta) had a small litter so now we have four beautiful pups. They’re all desexed now, so that worked out well. Accolades to GRV coming up with these programmes. They will definitely extend the greyhound’s lives.”
Bronwyn’s background in the sport goes back to her teenage years, albeit with a fairly long break in between. “I was involved with greyhounds as a kid, about 11 or 12, helping out the secretary in some regional tracks as an office girl and got involved in training into my twenties. I fell in love with the breed, but then there was a bit of a layoff – for 38 years!” “In the past ten years I decided to get my licence again. There’s a great photo of my 1978 winner Mr. Corvette and my 2018 winner Glory Fire. 40 years between winners!” Glory Fire retired in 2020, but Bronwyn’s ‘Big Boy’ Black Kruger (Banjo Boy x Tahlo) keeps them attending the race meetings every couple of weeks. “We travel a fair way. Horsham is our closest track, and that’s about an eight hour round trip, but we do get to Shepparton, Ballarat and Bendigo but they’re overnight trips.” “We’re just hobby trainers. I reckon there’s still a place for hobby trainers. We’re also doing a lot in the community here in Mildura. People are always asking questions about the Bronwyn, and her husband Greg, also run a behavioural clinic for dogs, drawing on her 38 years of experience as a veterinary nurse. She retired from the vet two years ago to concentrate on the clinic. “We get 80 to 100 dogs here every week for behaviour training, and I do dangerous dog assessments for NSW authorities, so the home job just grew out of proportion.” “I love working with the dogs every day as my day job, but my passion is still for the greyhounds.” Pawnote: From 52 starts, Black Kruger has amassed 23 wins, at tracks as far afield as Murray Bridge, Warrnambool, Bendigo, Gawler, Angle Park, Shepparton, Horsham, and Ballarat. Glory Fire, in her 71 starts for 12 wins, could add Dapto, Healesville, Richmond, Nowra and Wentworth Park to that list!
Bronwyn with her two winners 40 years apart – Mr Corvette and Glory Fire.
Traralgon’s J-Curve – the risk is all in the science
BY TONY HOMFRAY
Increasingly as a society we are being urged to “believe the science” – whether it be climate change or Covid-19 vaccinations.
But there is no more evidence of the belief in science than Greyhound Racing Victoria’s commitment to racing safety and welfare with its world-first, J-Curve track at Traralgon. When the first greyhounds chase the battery-powered lure around the new track later this year, the punters will not know how much detail has gone on behind the scenes of this unique track. In 2018 GRV and the Traralgon Greyhound Racing Club closed the track indefinitely after a detailed investigation found on-going drainage issues. Multiple designs were developed with the aim of building the safest possible track. That’s where Professor David Eager and his team of biomechanical specialists from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) came in. David Eager is Professor of Risk Management and Injury Prevention at UTS. He is also an internationally recognised expert on the safety aspects of trampolines, playgrounds, play surfacing, and sports and recreation equipment. Prof. Eager’s world is all about risk – that is the analysis, evaluation and assessment of risk.
Prof. Eager first got involved in the greyhound industry when, in 2015 he was invited to submit a submission for a grant to study the safety and welfare of greyhounds. It is over those years that he and his team have built computer models, using Artificial Intelligence, to simulate racing dogs and the dynamic effects such a race congestion on various track configurations. In particular, the forces the greyhounds experience as they accelerate from 0-70 kms/ph in less than one hundred metres.
To build these models, Prof. Eager has used the university resources from different engineering disciplines to achieve optimum safety. And it’s the use of these many disciplines which combine to enable track surfaces and sweeping bends, such as Traralgon, to develop peak racing surfaces. “An example of this was early in our modelling we needed a way of interpreting the forces impacting racing greyhounds and calibrating our tracking device,” Prof. Eager said. “We needed to calibrate the sensors we placed in the racing jackets of the dogs to analyse the acceleration pulses when the dogs’ paws hit the ground. So, I called on the resources of a civil engineering colleague to assist in the task. “We attached the sensors to a greyhound at the track and then measured the physical position of every paw imprint to correlate them with the sensor spikes. That’s just a small, but critical part of our simulation model.” And so, the model evolved. “While it has evolved over five and a half years, it is built on very strong foundations. It’s not something you can just make up on a whim or a random concept – there is a lot of computer science underpinned by biomechanical engineering behind it.” Then there is a matter of empathy with the sport. While Prof. Eager was chosen for his expertise in children’s playgrounds and amusement parks and the safety aspect of impacts from falls and acceleration on roller coasters, it came as somewhat of a surprise to him that anyone involved in animal research had to do an ethics course.
“Our research was all about saving the lives and reducing the injury rates of greyhounds,” he said. Prof. Eager and his entire team completed and passed the animal ethics course conducted by The University of Sydney’s Animal Ethics Committee before engaging in the greyhound research. So, after all the work and modelling is Prof. Eager confident of a successful Traralgon project? “You bet I am – I have a lot riding on this design,” he said. “In engineering we talk about the benefit of risk and not all risk is negative. This is an example of positive risk. Just as Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong did before us – GRV has taken a positive risk by getting behind this design. “I am confident that GRV and the participants won’t be sorry.”
