By Ron Hawkswell

Victoria made a clean sweep of
the National Championships in
early September when it
provided both the winner of the
National Sprint and the
National Distance
Championship Grand Finals.

The host state this year was
Queensland and the venue for the big
finals was Albion Park, or as it’s more
affectionately known “The Creek”.

Champion stayer Boomeroo scored a
breathtaking win in the Distance
Grand Final, winning by a big margin
and smashing the track record. Local
idols McDeebee and Dooley’s Mist
filled the placings seven lengths
away.

In the Sprint Grand Final the spoils
went to In The Frame, raced by
Sandown Greyhound Racing Club
Committeeman David Gleeson.

Victoria’s other representative
Modern Assassin, the more fancied
of the Victorians finished third with
local idol Edward’s Affair splitting the
two southerners.

The current standings (2002 included)
for both the National Sprint and
Distance Grand Finals since their
inception:

NATIONAL SPRINT
CHAMPIONSHIPS

NATIONAL DISTANCE
CHAMPIONSHIPS

All good news for Victorians but as
we all know a week is a long time in
Greyhound Racing — just ask
Michael Edwards and Eric Castle, the
trainers of Boomeroo and In The
Frame.

Tragedy struck the very day after the
finals, connections of Boomeroo
checking up on their top class dog at
around 4am, finding him badly
dehydrated due to a severe bout of
acidosis.

Fortunately Edwards and his family
were staying with the well known
veterinarian Dr. John Murray in
Queensland and thus were able to
take the necessary and prompt action
to try and correct the situation.

Edwards said it was “touch and go”
with Boomeroo on a drip for two days
but the dog returned to Victoria on the
road to recovery — connections
hoping that he will one day race again.

If that wasn’t enough, to lose one
superstar from the track for this year,
the sprint champion In The Frame will
also be off the scene for some time.

After her exciting victory she was
tailed off at her next outing — Eric
Castle saying that she suffered from
two broken bones in a back
metatarsal, necessitating her leg to
be placed in a splint for at least six
weeks.

Likely to be absent from the racetrack
for a minimum of six months, In The
Frame may not return at all — but if
injury does prevent her racing again
she will at least be a very valuable
brood bitch.

The ups and downs of racing at its
very best!

IMPRESSIVE PRIZEMONEY
INCREASES AT
SANDOWN PARK

Just as the first Tuesday in November
is a meaningful date to all horse
racing fans, so is the last Thursday of
that same month to followers of the
greyhound.

For that is the date (November 28 this
year) that the Sandown Greyhound
Racing Club hosts the final of the
Group One Schweppes Melbourne
Cup at Sandown Park.

And this year the prestigious event
will be better than ever with a marked
increase in prizemoney announced in
September — half a million dollars in
stakes on offer in what is now “the
world’s richest greyhound racing
series.”

Heat winners will now compete for
$10,000 while the final is worth a
princely $200,000 and ($140,000 to the
winner). Increases of $75,000 have
seen the prizemoney tally reach this
level and the series as always is
bound to be keenly contested.