7/29/2019 GRY14Mar13MB009

1/1

Got A Moment Crowned Queenslands Bestot A Moment Crowned Queenslands BestWhelped and reared by friends ofthe breeder. Trained initially from

an Ipswich suburban backyard.

Going on to wins in the Group 1

Melbourne and Brisbane Cups.

Thats the abbreviated story of Got

A Moment, named last weekend as

the 2012 Queensland Greyhound

Of The Year.

Got A Moment outpolled DontKnocka Him, Glen Gallon and He

Knows Uno, all group one winners

as well, to take the title.

Whereas the three males raced in

top competition all year round, Got

A Moment, a bitch, claimed her two

group one wins in November and

December.

The daughter of Collision andSplitting Hairs was bred by the

Buxton family of Ipswich andtrained by Dianna Buxton. Friends

Mike Chapman and Rachel Scott

whelped and reared the litter.

Buxton trained Got A Moment until

September last year when she cameup with a plan, partially hatched by

top trainer Reg Kay.

I thought if Got A Moment couldwin some graded races in Victoria,

that would add value to her pups

when it came time to breed with

her. Reg gave me an initial contact

with Jason Thompson who agreedto train the bitch for us.

Thompson heaped praise on the

condition in which Buxton sent GotA Moment to him.

Jason kept telling us how wellthe bitch was going and that he

would set her for the Melbourne

Cup. My thoughts were that a cou-

ple of fifth grade wins at Sandown

or the Meadows would be nice,

Buxton recalled.

Got A Moment won the

Melbourne Cup. That was the firsttime Buxton and Thompson met. All

previous details had been by phone

and email. Oh what a night!

Thompson then brought Got A

Moment to Albion Park for the

Group 1 Brisbane Cup. After a

strong finishing second to Miss

Milkshake in a heat, Got A Momentwas the first reserve for the final.

But she got a start from box six

because a faster second placegetter

in a heat had marred and was

scratched. Got A Moment pinged

out of box six and led all-the-way in

29.85. She paid $14.20 on the win

tote. In hindsight, that was aremarkable price for a Melbourne

Cup winner just a fortnight prior.

Throughout 2012 Got A Moment

had 28 starts for 14 wins and seven

placings. At Albion Park, she hadfive wins from 14 starts. The bitchcame on season at the start of this

year and, according to Buxton, is

enjoying her enforced rest at Jason

Thompsons property.

Deserved InducteesTo Hall Of Fame

Two greyhounds, an individual and

a married couple were inducted

into the Racing Queensland Hall Of

Fame last Saturday night.

The greyhounds were Credibility

and Kirstys First.

Credibility was a top performer

on the track and a highly successful

stud dog. He won 21 of his 40 starts

when trained by Tony Zammit for asyndicate of three workmates from

the Toowoomba Chronicle newspa-

per. Glen McCullough, a racing

writer from the Chronicle, attendedand spoke with fondness of the dog

who did so much on the track and

at stud and later became a house-

hold pet at his familys Toowoomba

home.

Zammit rates Credibility in thetop three greyhounds that he has

trained. When pressed to name the

other two, he replied with Trojan

Tears and Surf Lorian.

Ive trained faster greyhoundsthan Credibility but none that

chased as hard as he did, Zammit

said.

At stud, Credibility sired super-

stars including Faithful Hawk, JustThe Best, Nobodys Fool,

Bearability, Questions, Yo Yos Boy,

History Lesson and Fine Devil.

Kirstys First, who raced in the

mid 1980s, was raced by Jim

Grundon of Toowoomba andtrained by Gary Cameron at nearby

Oakey. Kirstys First gave

Queensland its first win in a

National Distance Championship. It

was in 1986 at the Gabba.In that final, National Lass, trained

by Richie Dean, came to Brisbane

with a huge boom. Kirstys First was

very slowly away whereas National

Lass jumped straight to the front.

By the time they had completed onelap of the 704 metres event, Kirstys

First had taken the lead and raced

away to score by five lengths to the

cheers of the 5000 strong crowd. A

then young up and coming stayerby the name of Bold Trease was

Victorias representative. He fin-

ished fifth.Kirstys First was an outstanding

performer wherever she raced. She

had a particular liking for her spa-

cious home track at Toowoomba,

which had opened in October, 1985.One night she won a 686 metre racethere by so far that the second dog

didnt show up on the photo finish.

In those days, the reel of black and

white film would capture all run-

ners, finishing within 28 lengths ofthe winner. The judge was trying to

work out the winning margin but

couldnt do so because the second

dog wasnt captured on film. So the

second placegetter was, in fact, dis-

tanced or tailed off. So were theother runners in the race too, of

course.

As a broodbitch Kirstys First is

best known as the grand dam of top

galloper Worthy Reward, a group

one winner trained by the late TomPatterson of Ipswich.

Long serving race club commit-

teeman Albert Bunny Hewton was

inducted into the Hall of Fame.Hewton first saw a greyhound in

1936 when he was aged ten and

liked what he saw. He trained with

plenty of success and served on

race club committees at

Loganholme, Beenleigh, Capalaba,the Gabba and Albion Park for 45

years, from 1966 until his retire-

ment from Albion Park in 2011.The

86 year old still plays golf at his

beloved Pacific Club in Brisbane.Also inducted into the Hall Of

Fame were Elaine and Bevan

Williamson.

As trainers, puppy educators and

racetrack equipment suppliers,their involvement in greyhound rac-

ing spans nearly fifty years.

Elaine rates Yo Yo Flyer as the best

she has trained. And Watusi Rose,

the dam of subsequent top racer

and magnificent sire Acacia Ablaze,was also a top performer for the

kennel. So too Lucys Light, a

Queensland Greyhound Of The Year

finalist in 2006.

Bevan has driven the lure in thou-sands of races. He says Rapid

Journey is the fastest he has driven

to.

Its hard to comprehend how fast

the dog was going when he won the

Queensland Cup final at Beenleighin 1998. He was just awesome that

day, Bevan recalls.

Bevan was the 2005 Brisbane Club

Personality Of The Year.

You dont expect to receive theseawards and its very nice to think

that people appreciate

what you do, he said.The Women In Racing

Award went to Sandra

Hunt. In the forty years of

night racing in Brisbane,

originally at the Gabbafrom 1972 and thenAlbion Park from 1993,

Hunt is the only female to

win the overall trainers

premiership. She

achieved that twice, in2010 and 2011.

She has won the leading

lady trainer title at Albion

Park six times, overall

owner twice and lady

owner four times.I was told I might be in

the running for an award

but didnt really know

what was happening. This

is a huge thrill, Hunt said.

The Brisbane Club Personality OfThe Year was Lemonade Tom

Feehan, a Monday and Thursday

regular at the track.

Born in Sydney, Feehan has livedon the Gold Coast since 1975. He

was a talented rugby league player

for the Paddo Colts in Sydney. His

mates at the Albion Park Table of

Knowledge cant quite work out

why he still cheers for New SouthWales in the State of Origin series

each year!

Feehan, a volunteer worker with

the Gold Coast Titans rugby league

team, produced a signed football todonate as a prize at the awards

night. The winner, Bunny Hewton,

immediately donated the ball for an

auction which raised $500 for the

Greyhound Adoption Program(GAP).

Feehan told the 200 people in

attendance at the awards night to

back the Titans to beat Cronulla the

next day. The Sharks won a thriller

by 12 to 10 so his tip wasnt far offthe mark.

The Young Achiever Award went

to Mitchell Cox from Rockhampton.

After nine wins in Rockhampton

with his only dog in work, TopBrand, Cox decided to travel to

Ipswich in December last year. He

started Top Brand three times there

in seven days and the dog won each

start, from boxes one, two and six.

In the first Ipswich win, my dogbeat one of Tony Bretts by six

lengths. Never in my wildest dreams

did I think that would ever happen,

Cox said.

Cox was spotted chatting withTony Brett at some length at the

awards night.

Cox, aged twenty, has two grey-

hounds in work and hopes tobecome a full time greyhound train-

er in due course.

The Top Simbi Award, given to a

greyhound, person or organisation

who generates significant positivepublicity for the sport, went to Got

A Moments breeder and owner Di

Buxton.

The Greyhound Recorder Thursday, 14 March, 2013 Page 9

Caption

Caption

written by

Paul Dolan

Simpson Leads

Young Guns ChargeTonights Albion Park Young

Guns final has produced a very

even field.

Five heats were run last

Thursday. Winning times ranged

from 30.24 for Raging Obsession

to 30.62 for Mr. Garcia.Sandwiched between those times

were Starliner with 30.32 and

Premier Recall and Bakaara who

each ran 30.39.

Raging Obsession finished thirdin the recent Vince Curry

Memorial Maiden final at Ipswich.

Year in, year out, the form from

that race is very strong.

Raging Obsession jumped frombox one last week in his all the

way win. Trainer Peter Simpson

from Casino isnt worried about

the dog drawing box seven

tonight for the final.Starliner has drawn the eight

and he doesnt show much early

speed, Simpson said.I wouldnt have minded box

eight, actually, he went really well

at Ipswich from the eight, win-ning his semi final of the Vince

Curry in good time and by eight

lengths. - Paul Dolan