Month: September 2021

A whirlwind 2021 has continued for teenager Kayla Cottrell, with the Group 1-winning trainer receiving the prestigious Ned Bryant ‘Silver Fox’ Award at Sunday evening’s Victorian Greyhound Awards. The award is presented annually to a participant for showing outstanding achievement in the training, breeding, welfare and promotion of greyhound racing, and at just 19, Cottrell has wasted absolutely no time making her mark. Cottrell, daughter of respected Pearcedale trainer/educators Dave Knocker and Janet Cottrell, only took out her trainers license in April, 2020, after turning 18, and less than a…

One of the most recognisable voices of greyhound racing, race caller Rob Testa, has been recognised at the 2021 Victorian Greyhound Awards with the Ken Carr Medal. Rob has been calling the races for 40 years, since being influenced by another legend of the sport, the late Bill Collins. “I wanted to be a race caller since the first time I heard Bill Collins call a race,” Rob said. “He used to be on World of Sport on Sunday mornings, and I always wanted to be like him. “Then, there…

Despite only having a handful of greyhounds in work, Dallas Massina has won the inaugural Provincial Strike Rate Award, announced at Sunday’s Victorian Greyhound Awards. In an extremely competitive ‘race’, Dallas, who’s based at Golden Square and is the daughter of former long-serving Bendigo GRA President Noel Massina, finished ahead of prominent duo, Kel Greenough, who narrowly failed to complete the Metropolitan – Provincial Strike Rate double, and Glenn Rounds. WATCH: Dallas Massina-trained star Jannila wins a Grade 5 final at Bendigo in April 2021 in the Best time of…

There are two qualities that stand out with Kel Greenough, who was announced as the inaugural winner of the Metropolitan Trainer Strike Rate Award at Sunday night’s Victorian Greyhound Awards. The first is that Greenough, who prepares a boutique team at Pearcedale, along with wife Jacqui, is an absolute perfectionist when it comes to preparing his racing dogs, leaving no stone unturned to ensure they are at their peak, both performance and fitness-wise. Greenough’s other notable characteristic is that he never – never – gets carried away with either his…

Mark Delbridge has capped a memorable 12 months by being named the winner of the Provincial Trainer’s Premiership at Sunday’s Victorian Greyhound Awards. This award recognises the trainer with the highest number of winners of full provincial stake money races conducted at Victorian tracks, with ‘Team Delbridge’, consisting of Mark, wife Lisa and son Myles, topping the premiership, ahead of champion rivals Andrea Dailly and Jason Thompson. “It’s a great honour,” said Delbridge. In the period July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021, Delbridge snared 304 provincial winners from 1574…

Andrea Dailly is the 2020-21 Victorian Metropolitan Trainer of the Year. Securing this gong has become somewhat of an ‘annual ritual’ for Dailly as it’s her fourth in succession as training representative for “Team Dailly”. Based at Anakie, Dailly topped the metro leader-board with another stellar racing season. From a total of 1109 metropolitan runners, she notched 175 wins (15.77%), 161 seconds (14.51%) and 155 thirds (13.97%). Another Anakie trainer, Jeff Britton, was runner-up (438 runners, 82 wins) and Balliang’s Mark Delbridge third (341 runners, 60 wins). “We are proud…