Ill health has forced legendary trainer Wally Lutiger to quit the sport.
Wally, who trained 2003 NSW Greyhound of the Year Kumta Chase and in 2012 Fancy DEAN, winner of 21 from 54 Wentworth Park races with 14 of them in under 30 seconds, has been unwell for several months.
His devoted wife Evelyn said: "Training any more greyhounds is out of the question.
"We have a couple of retired greyhounds, Just Mick and Just Alby, who were very good to us, which have a home for life, and we have a couple of brood bitches.
"There are three young greyhounds here who have only average ability but I can’t get anyone to train them and Wally is not able to continue."
Like hundreds of Europeans in the 1950s Swiss-born Wally, a pastry chef, migrated to Australia with the lure of making good money working on the fledgling Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme.
I once asked Wally what he learned from his co-workers in his early days in Australia and he replied: "They taught me how to bet."
Wally and his mates would often charter a plane from Cooma to Mascot airport for the Saturday afternoon thoroughbred race meetings but it was the greyhound racing code that eventually attracted him and he became one of the sport’s most accomplished and popular trainers.
On behalf of myself and their legion of friends in the sport I’d like to wish Wally and Evelyn our best wishes for the future.
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Kid Dynamite, who scored his sixth successive win at Goulburn on Tuesday in near record time, is to have "a couple of weeks off, to gnaw on some bones, and just be a dog for a while."
That was western districts trainer Peter Bell’s comment as he summed up his decision to by-pass the Temora Gold Cup series with Kid Dynamite, who was bought as a three month old puppy for a mere $1000.
"I have not nominated him anywhere because he has done a great job so far and only turned two years old on Friday," Peter said.
"I toyed with the idea of taking him to Temora but that is a 700km round trip for me and Kid Dynamite would be running into some hot, higher grade sprinters in the cup series there.
"He ran 25.75 for the 457m at Goulburn on Tuesday and that was only 0.14sec outside Awesome Hustler’s track record.
"Kid Dynamite was purchased almost as an after-thought.
"I had trained Sheepish Grin who ran a close second at Wentworth Park, and with the prizemoney he won the syndicate which owned him asked me to buy them another dog.
"I heard about a litter by Swift Fancy from Roxy Millions up at Tamworth, went up there, and bought a black pup for $1,000 which now races at Swift Cash.
"As I was leaving this white dog ran out of the kennels and I really liked the look of him.
"When I got home with the black pup, CHRIS Hanrahan, my boss at the pet food factory where I work, asked me to buy the white pup as well, and that is Kid Dynamite.
"CHRIS formed a syndicate of seven people, all first time owners and including coal miners, a nurse and a school teacher, to race Kid Dynamite.
"Although Kid Dynamite has won seven of his nine starts the first pup I bought, his brother Swift Cash, can beat him on the slipping track.
"On his own Swift Cash can trial 17.60 for the 307m at Bathurst and can run 7.71 for the first split, but is still a maiden after seven races because he won’t go in a field and has become a real problem."
