Shepparton Greyhound Racing Club has been left tickled pink following a gem of a racing night at the weekend.
Saturday night’s Pink Diamond series event left racegoers content and outsiders envied following a bumper meeting for the books, with waves of trainers, owners and greyhound enthusiasts congregating at Shepparton.
Oh, and a certain Collingwood legend, too.
Even Peter Daicos had to swing by for a sniff of the action on a night where more than $560,000 in prizemoney and bonuses were divvied up between the throngs of racing-mad parties.
Shepparton Greyhound Racing Club manager Carl McGrath was stoked with how the night played out.
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Crackerjack Aret flies to the post in the Champion Sprinter. Photo by Clint AndersonImage 2 of 8
David Kerr shows some love to Wrong Bias. Photo by Clint AndersonImage 3 of 8
A healthy crowd was in attendance for Saturday’s Pink Diamond stakes. Photo by Clint AndersonImage 4 of 8
Wrong Bias tears in front of the pack. Photo by Clint AndersonImage 5 of 8
Deb Cumes-owned Champagne Cuddle following its Rookie Sprinter event win. Photo by Clint AndersonImage 6 of 8
Racing was only half of the attraction at Saturday’s Pink Diamond stakes. Photo by Clint AndersonImage 7 of 8
Trainer Jordan Cooper with Crackerjack Aret following its Championship Sprinter success. Photo by Clint AndersonImage 8 of 8
Collingwood legend Peter Daicos graced Shepparton Greyhound Racing Club during a bumper night of action. Photo by Clint Anderson“Even though we had dogs and trainers from all around the state, it actually had a real community feel to it — it was great,” he said.
“Things like we had the Dookie-Devenish Good Friday appeal doing their raffle, they had a fantastic result of raising $1650 or something. We supplied some meat for them and they raffled it off — it had that vibe of the old meat raffles.
“A lucky lady won $1000 on the Lift the Lids draws and a bottle of Peter Daicos’ whiskey, another lady won another bottle of special blend whiskey which was Peter Daicos’ limited edition one.
“He was there on the night, and he was very good at talking to people — one-on-one, he spent a lot of time with people chatting.
“We didn’t have him up doing a spiel, et cetera; he just walked around talking to people.
“It was just a nice, relaxed good atmosphere. It was great.”
While plenty of patrons had great collects off the track, Bradley Greenough was clearly the toast of the town on it.
The Pearcedale-based trainer claimed a trio of wins, with Unleash in Miami, Zeus Thunderbolt and Flaming Wheels notching first placings to make up a quarter of the race wins across the 12 events.
“The racing was terrific. We had one young trainer (Greenough) who absolutely had a blinder of a night,” McGrath said.
“He had three winners which is just about unheard of at these sorts of events.
“He’s a young, up and coming trainer and a very likeable bloke. He’s been racing up at our track recently a lot so he’s put the groundwork into his dogs.”
Pulsating racing, fantastic fanfare — what more could people have asked for?
McGrath noted one patron labelled it the “best Pink Diamond event she’d ever been to”, while he also said he’s been receiving emails of praise galore.
It has rubber-stamped an unforgettable night for the Kialla-based club, which only reiterates the hosting capabilities of one of country Victoria’s finest greyhound establishments.
“To be honest we never got any complaints, all we got was praise about how well the event went,” McGrath said.
“We couldn’t be more happy with how the night went.”