Pedrosa Named 2010 WA Greyhound Of The Year
The Paul Stuart-owned and trained Pedrosa was crowned the Schweppes WA Greyhound of the Year for 2010 at a gala function in Perth last night.
Pedrosa raced 26 times during 2010, recording 17 wins and 5 placings for a total of $136,170 in stakes. He qualified for six feature finals during 2010 and was successful in five of them – the Lew Dorsa Memorial, Group 2 WA Derby, Winter Cup, WA Sprint Championship and the Anniversary Cup, all over the Cannington 530m distance.
Pedrosa represented Western Australia in the National Sprint Championship at Angle Park in Adelaide where he led until the first turn before holding on for fourth.
Undoubtedly the other major highlight for Pedrosa during the year was his invitation to compete in the Group 1 Topgun at The Meadows in Melbourne during October, becoming only the third greyhound ever from WA to be acknowledged in such a manner at a national level.
Pedrosa's feats at Cannington where he finished in top two in all of his 22 starts and broke 30.30 seconds for the 530m on 14 occasions will be remembered for a long time to come.
Other award winners during the evening included long-term Mandurah-based industry participant Barry Thompson in the Gerry O'Keefe Achievement Award, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the greyhound racing industry as an owner, trainer and most notably as a breeder/studmaster. It was the mating of Barry Thomson's sire Red Swinger to Sandilock in 1987 that produced arguably Western Australia's most outstanding litter – one that included inaugural Western Australian Racing Industry Hall of Fame inductee, the immortal Sandi's Me Mum.
Linda Britton again collected the Leading Trainer Award after winning the Cannington Trainers' Title for a record 12th time and finishing third in the Mandurah Title in 2010. Paul Stuart, the trainer of Schweppes WA Greyhound of the Year PEDROSA, was successful in the Youth Achievement Award after training 51 winners in an extremely successful first year as a public trainer in Western Australia.
Over 200 people attended last night's glittering event held at the Hyatt Regency Perth that was hosted by Channel 9's Bob Harnett.