By the time the final Tara Raceway meeting of 2024 concluded on Sunday, December 29 as far as the Mount Gambier Greyhound of the Year (GOTY) was concerned there had been nothing separating the Cadillac Racing pair of Top Cadillac and Mister Cadillac.
With no race for Top Cadillac on the final day and Mister Cadillac running fourth, neither greyhound had scored points. This meant they wrapped up the year with 57 points each, 13 clear of Purified who had been retired at the end of September.
Owned and trained by Captain Abbott, Top Cadillac is by Feral Franky out of Establish and is a younger half-brother to former top stayer Sir Truculent (46 wins and $442,000 in prize money) while Mister Cadillac is a son of Magical Bale and Koa Lass.
Top Cadillac raced at Tara Raceway on 30 occasions during 2024 for 12 wins, 3 seconds and 3 thirds while Mister Cadillac went around on 44 occasions at the local track for six wins, 16 seconds and seven thirds.
Abbott, together with Kerry Hawker, runs Cadillac Racing which is currently the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club’s major sponsor. And in recent times the pair has been successful on four occasions in their quest for GOTY honours.
In 2019 Abbott was successful with Black Spring (13, 9, 4 – 74) who defeated Cryer’s Harper by six points. And two years later he was successful again with Another Pick (12, 9, 6 – 72) who had three points to spare over Bungaloo Anne.
Then in 2023 Hawker’s Nero Valentino, who celebrated his fifth birthday on Christmas Day in that year, accumulated 75 points by way of seven firsts, 21 seconds and nine thirds when defeating Redshift Uniform by 13 points.
And still on a GOTY theme. At the final meeting of the year, Edna Fennell’s Magic Mack, a son of Feral Franky and Perseverance, was successful in the Gordon Refrigeration Juvenile Stake (305 metres).
Perseverance, who was trained by Fennell’s husband Dean, won the 2020 Greyhound of the Year with 60 points, one more than Dyna Carnie while Keen One was a further point back in third spot.
Meanwhile, Tracie Price, Mount Gambier’s leading trainer in 2024, kicked off the year with a win in the Carlin & Gazzard Summer Classic (512 m) with Wild Banker and wrapped up the year when winning the Williams Crane Hire Christmas Cup (512 m) with Minnie’s My Mum.
All told, Price trained 150 winners at Tara Raceway during 2024. This included 13 trebles, four winners on seven occasions and five winners twice.
He was Mount Gambier’s leading trainer in 2015, 2016 and again in 2018 when the award assumed the name of the late Ian Badger – the club’s inaugural leading trainer in 1978-1979. Price was leading trainer again in 2022 and followed up in 2023 with a record-breaking 194 winners.
Other trainers to enjoy a successful 2024 included David Peckham 80 winners, Captain Abbott 58, Jason Newman 51 and Lorraine Goodwin 45.