As far as Wind Whiskers, the 2025 Mount Gambier Greyhound of the Year (GOTY) was concerned, it had all began with Trevor Rhodes from over Bonegilla way in Victoria and a greyhound called Ashleigh Ella.
A daughter of Where’s Pedro x Sister Inc she was bred and trained for Rhodes by Doug and Lorraine Ferremi, best known for their association with Highly Blessed, inducted into the AGRA Hall Of Fame in 2000.
A winner of 11 races between 2008 and 2010, Ashleigh Ella later whelped three litters by Bobby Boucheau, Velocette and Collision.
And members of her October 2011 Velocette litter included Ash Flash (24 wins, $138,000 prize money) and Hillbilly Flash (16, $65,000).
Later, following a mating with Aussie Infrared, Ash Flash produced Takers To Vegas, a winner of 14 races and $31,000 in prize money, who subsequently was mated with Beast Unleashed and produced Wind Whiskers.
Trevor Rhodes died in August 2025 at the age of 72 but his wife Lenore, daughter Michelle Erdeli and 10-year-old granddaughter Zoe made the trip over to Tara Raceway to receive last Sunday’s GOTY award.
The GOTY winner is raced by the Show Girls Syndicate, with Michelle explaining the name came about after a group of the girls had enjoyed a holiday in Las Vegas.
Wind Whiskers found her way down to Mount Gambier and Jason Newman and Melissa Freitag’s Moorak kennels in late 2024 after having raced on only four occasions at Temora and Wagga for a maiden win.
Come mid-January 2025 and she kicked off the year in fine style and never looked back. However, by early October Newman and Freitag were scaling down their greyhound operation and Millicent-based Dave Green was set to take over.
Not that anything changed. Wind Whiskers continued on her winning way with another nine wins to see out the year as well as breaking her own 305 metre track record with a run of 17.24 seconds.
All told, Wind Whiskers won 23 races at Tara Raceway together with seven seconds and four thirds for a total of 97 points – 25 clear of Mister Cadillac.
For the fourth consecutive year, Tracie Price of Compton won the Ian Badger Leading Trainer award with 137 Mount Gambier winners, 145 seconds and 120 thirds for a total of 958 points. Previously, he had been successful in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018.
The award is named after the late Ian Badger who was the club’s inaugural leading trainer back in 1978-1979.
Price finished 410 points clear of Allendale East-based David Peckham with a further 206 points back to Kyle Goodwin of Hamilton.
And he wrapped up the year with five winners at Tara Raceway on Sunday, December 28 with Rock It Ronnie, Compton Ava, Compton Rocks, Trial King and Capybara.
Making up the top 10 trainers of the year were Dean Fennell, Kerry Hawker, Captain Abbott, Lorraine Goodwin, Melissa Freitag, Michael Niele and Tony Hinrichsen.
In accepting the Leading Trainer award, Price once again made a special point of mentioning his team of helpers at his Compton kennels and also on race days.
Also a Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club committee person, he thanked the club and its staff for their support on race and trial days and on a day to day basis at the Lake Terrace East complex.