Miata Wins WA Greyhound Of The Year Award
The Paul Stuart and Nichole Wheeler-Whye owned Miata was crowned the WA Greyhound of the Year for 2012 at a function in Perth yesterday.
Miata which is trained by Paul Stuart raced 25 times during 2012 for 21 wins and 2 placings for a total of $515,393 in stakes.
Miata started off the year having her first run over the 715m trip at Cannington where she produced a dominant all the way effort to break the track record. This was the start of a run of 10 consecutive wins over the half-mile trip, during which she took out the Group 1 Galaxy, Group 2 Zoom Top and the Group 1 Association Cup. The run came to an end in the final of the Group 1 Sandown Cup, when she found all sorts of trouble but still got up off the canvas to place third, only 1.75 lengths from the winner.
Miata was successful in a further 2 Group 1 races during the year, the National Distance Championship and the Bold Trease Carnival Cup. Miata's feats during 2012 were truly of once in a lifetime nature.
Miata was also crowned the 2012 Australian Greyhound of the Year at a gala function in Victoria last month. This is the first time that a Western Australian greyhound has been awarded this top honour.
Other award winners during the evening included long serving Greyhounds WA stalwart Graeme Collins who served the greyhound racing industry for more than 4 decades commencing at the time of the sport's inception in WA in 1974. Graeme was originally an employee of Automatic Totalisators Limited (ATL), the company which won the initial totalisator contract for greyhound racing at Cannington and Mandurah. He oversaw the totalisator operations including the installation of the giant semaphore board at Cannington, which whilst ‘old' technology, still provides an odds, results and dividends service to on-course patrons after so many years. He joined Greyhounds WA as a permanent employee of the then Authority in 1987, resigning from his permanent position as Technical Services Manager overseeing the totes and racebook printing in July 1997. He has however, to this day, still continued to offer his services in a casual role to assist the club and greyhound racing industry.
The Gerry O'Keefe Award for Achievement recognises one of the great WA pioneers and trainers associated with greyhound racing in Western Australia, primarily from the feats of 2007 WA Racing Hall of Fame inductee and only dual National Sprint title holder, Sandi's Me Mum.
Linda Britton again collected the Leading Trainer Award after winning the Cannington Trainers' Title for a record 14th time. She also topped the Trainers' Title at Mandurah in 2012 after finishing second in 2011. Britton trained 385 winners for the calendar year, her highest ever total.
Talented young trainer Eric Campana was successful in the Youth Achievement Award. Campana trained 74 winners and 106 placegetters from only 363 starters during 2012, at only his second full year as a trainer.
Over 170 people attended last night's gala function held at the Pan Pacific Hotel, hosted by Tod Johnston.