2017 UBET Greyhound of the Year Awards
2017 UBET Greyhound of the Year Awards
ON FIRE
2017 Starts 34 - 1sts 21, 2nds 8, 3rds 2
(Bekim Bale x Alana Blues)
(SA Bred) Owner – Cameron Butcher
Trainer - Cameron Butcher
2017 Prizemoney - $105,100
Greyhound of the Month – May, June, July & August - (scored votes in 7 months – Total 96 votes)
Won – Final SA St Leger (second in Heat)
Final SA Anniversary Cup (second in Heat)
Heat & Final State National Sprint Championship (G1 – second in National Final)
Best Times: 29.44 (515m Angle Park)
31.08 (531m Gawler)
* Won 13 Metropolitan races in a row from April to July
Greyhound of the Year Nominees and vote tally:
ON FIRE – 23 votes
BOGIE BEKIM – 22 votes
CAIRNLEA KENNY – 15 votes
HIGH EDEN FROST – 9 votes
WINDMILL HAZE – 6 votes
2017 SA Bred Greyhound of the Year
ON FIRE
2017 SA Sprinting Greyhound of the Year
ON FIRE
2017 SA Distance Greyhound of the Year
BOGIE BEKIM
2017 Greyhound of the Month winners
January – Worm Burner – trainer Cameron Butcher
February – Bogie Bekim – trainer Ben Rawlings
March – Molly Be Nimble – trainer Cameron Butcher
April – Bogie Bekim – trainer Ben Rawlings
May – On Fire – trainer Cameron Butcher
June – On Fire – trainer Cameron Butcher
July – On Fire – trainer Cameron Butcher
August – On Fire – trainer Cameron Butcher
September – Cairnlea Kenny – Petar Jovanovic
October – Bogie Bekim – Ben Rawlings
November – Windmill Haze – trainer Ken Gill
December – Zinfandel Zara – trainer Gavin Harris
2017 Outstanding Service to Industry Award
Ron Burns – Nominated by GRSA
2017 Volunteer Services to the Industry
Ken Foureur – Nominated by Gavin Harris
2017 SA Stud Dog of the Year
Falcon - 18 wins
Owner – Peter & Valmai Bothwell
This was the second year in a row that Falcon has been awarded the leading SA Sire. In 2017 greyhounds sired by Falcon won 18 races. Some of his best performed progeny included Priscilla Mary (3 wins), Skinny Bob (3 wins) and Full Bogan (3 wins).
2017 SA Brood Bitch of the Year
Long Gully Libby - 80
Owner – Paula Hearnden
Long Gully Libby won the Brood Bitch of the Year with 80 winners in 2017. Her winners came from two litters that performed outstandingly. The Djay’s Octane litter had 9 pups with all 9 making it to the race track. Best performed was Long Gully Gilly and Long Gully Jonny (5 wins each). The Kc And All litter had 13 pups with 12 making it to the race track. All 12 pups won races with her best performers being Long Gully Josh (15 wins), Long Gully Pete (9 wins), Long Gully Ella (8 wins), Long Gully Robbi & Long Gully Leo (7 wins each).
2017 SA Breeder of the Year
Cameron Butcher – 260 points
This was the eighth time this award was presented and is to recognize the outstanding Breeder in the State for 2017. This award is decided on a point’s basis for SA Bred greyhounds that have won races at Sky Racing meetings during 2017 in SA.
Cameron had an outstanding year with his brood bitch’s Hope’s Up and Alana Blues supplying a string of winners for the season including GOTY Finalist On Fire which won 13 straight earlier in the year. Hope’s Up had 3 litters which raced and won in 2017 which were Nitro Burst x Hope’s Up (Molly Be Nimble 9 wins. Penny Maker 5 wins), Collision x Hope’s Up (Aston Hinkley 10 wins, Hope’s Beau 9 wins) and Fernando Bale x Hope’s Beau (Aiming 1 win). Alana Blues had 1 litter race by Bekim Bale which produced many feature race winners including On Fire (21 wins) and Purpose Driven (14 wins).
2017 SA Owner/Trainer of the Year
Cameron Butcher - 104
Again Cameron Butcher was the leading Owner/Trainer of the Year with a total of 104 TAB winners in 2017. Cameron had good success with his greyhounds including star sprinter On Fire who ran second in the Group 1 National Sprint Final at Albion Park back in August and highly talented Purpose Driven who won the Stayer’s Cup in June. Cameron usually races in partnership with his wife Yvonne and daughter Karen. His winners included On Fire, Purpose Driven, Molly Be Nimble, Jay’s Ace and Worm Burner.
2017 UBET Leading Trainer of the Year
Tony Rasmussen – 157
It was a carbon copy of last year with Tony Rasmussen making it back to back awards as he was awarded the UBET leading Trainer of the Year, with a total of 157 winners at TAB meetings in SA during 2017 increasing his 145 from last year. Tony received great support again from his wife Lisa who again came third in this year’s leading trainer award with 132 wins, bettering her 130 from last year. The Rasmussen family trained an outstanding 289 winners for the year.
2017 SA Syndicate of the Year
“Riff Raff” Syndicate
Manager – Kim Johnstone
This was the eleventh time that this Award was presented to acknowledge an important part of our industry in Syndication. The “Riff Raff” Syndicate which was formed on 14th November 2014 and includes Matthew Payne, Kathy Johnstone, Craig D’Antonio, Ken Gill and Paula Hearnden goes back to back after winning the award last year. The Syndicate owned 23 greyhounds in 2017 winning 73 races between them. The main performers were Waltharius (9 wins), Marlow Brown (8 wins), Rachel Zane (8 wins) and Deed (7 wins). Amazingly 21 of the 23 greyhounds owned by the syndicate won races in 2017.
2017 SA City Strike Rate
Leonard Wilson – 32.25%
This award was based on performances for Angle Park metropolitan grade meetings. The trainer also must have a minimum of 20 starters for the year.
Len qualified mainly through the performance of his handy sprinter Hesa Marlow who won 10 races from his 25 starts. During 2017 Len trained 10 winners from 31 starters at city meetings (City A/City B), giving him a 32.25% strike rate.
2017 Gawler Trackstar Award
Emerley Dryad – 39 starts (11/10/6)
Trainer – Judi Hurley
Emerley Dryad had all 39 starts at the Gawler venue over the 400m journey with his best time being 22.65. He made the final of the Gawler Sprint Classic on Gawler Cup final night in November, finishing in 8th position. He won 28% of his starts at Gawler and was placed in almost 70% of races showing his consistency during the year.
2017 Run Of The Year – Bogie Bekim (January)
Run of the Year was Bogie Bekim for trainer Ben Rawlings for his outstanding performance at Angle Park on the 12th January over 731m in a FFA event. He was able to lead most of the way from box 2 running blistering sectionals including breaking the 3rd split track record at Angle Park. He ran splits of 4.23/15.90/29.10 and an overall of 42.97 in winning by 4 ½ lengths. Bogie Bekim won this award based on a combination of the public vote and votes from the GOTY Panel.
Gun McBain – Australian TAB & Angle Park Record
South Australia’s Iron Dog Gun McBain went out on a winning note in November to embark on a stud career when he was successful at Angle Park over the 388m in his last race start. Owned and trained by Raye Kelly the son of Spring Gun and Flame McBain was a permanent fixture on the SA racing scene since his debut on the 2nd April 2014 at headquarters, not surprisingly with a win. He left the race track with a few titles to his name in his 168 race starts which included 68 wins (40%) and 55 placings and prizemoney in excess of $160,000. He holds the Angle Park record of most wins at the venue of 53 and also currently holds the National record of most TAB wins in Australia of any greyhound at 68. The next closest to him in is Just Proper with 65 wins who raced in Darwin and Stagger at 64 wins who raced Victoria.
The Australasian record continues to increase with Wheelchair Norm as of 11/1/18 having won 83 races in New Zealand.
Gun McBain’s feature wins on the track were the 2014 Champion Puppy Final, the 2015 Group 3 Gawler Cup Final and 2017 John Gray Final.