Sunday, December 29, 2019
With Squishy Pea’s Williams Crane Hire Christmas Cup win a week ago, followed by four winners at Thursday’s Boxing Day meeting and then another three at Tara Raceway’s final meeting of the year on Sunday, Allendale East greyhound trainer David Peckham couldn’t have ended the year much better.
All told, 23 doubles, nine trebles, four winners on six occasions and a couple of bags of five at the Mount Gambier track during 2019 went a long way towards him winning the Ian Badger Leading Trainer award with 128 firsts, 101 seconds and 79½ thirds.
For the 45-year-old Peckham, this year’s trainers’ title is his fourth, after consecutive wins in 2012, 2013 and 2014, although this year was his first in which he trained 100 winners.
“That milestone came on Sunday, November 3 when Right Above It won at Tara Raceway. And that really was a great thrill,” he said.
When pressed for highlights of the year, Peckham rated Pirate’s Curse’s 600 metre track record of 34.79 seconds on April 21, the win in the inaugural Tara Trackstar with Flash Jackie and last week’s win with Squishy Pea as three memorable moments.
“To be honest, though, the whole year has gone above and beyond all my expectations. I’m most appreciative of the owners who have got behind me and the kennels. Also I need to pay special thanks to ‘Team Peckham’ – Christine Yourgules, Jason Newman and Melissa Freitag – for their help with the racing team of 20 greyhounds.”
Peckham now has his sights set on the forthcoming Summer Classic as a lead-in to the Group Listed Mount Gambier Cup, the leading trainer, it could be said, having come a fair way since 1990 when he led in his first winner at Glenburnie with Magic Bundy.