A chance encounter with Sydney’s biggest bookmaker Terry Page at the first greyhound meeting he attended launched the career of Harry Sarkis, who went on to train three winners of the NSW Greyhound of the Year award and a Golden Easter Egg victor.
But Harry’s first greyhound was far from a world beater. In fact he had to return the bitch after he discovered she was almost blind!
"In 1977 I had a commercial laundry which supplied several five star hotels in the city," Harry recalled.
“My hobby was drag racing but one of my mates suggested a night out at the dogs for a change and after placing a $10 bet I stood alongside Terry Page to watch the race.
"Terry had put $3,000 on a different dog and when the one I backed won I couldn’t wait to go out and buy a greyhound the following day.
“Her name was Venom Lass but I found out she was nearly blind so got my money back and bought a puppy from Maurie Knight, who had a good Harold Park sprinter called True Sword.
"I named the pup Transit Lane and he won his first three starts up the straight at Appin before I bought Captain Video from a butcher at Vaucluse, and that dog gave me my first circle track win at Bathurst.
"Later Ambrose Murray, the famous greyhound educator, was breaking a pup in for me and I noticed an almost identical young dog there which he informed me was a litter brother to my dog.
"I named mine Bavarian Prince and he was a handy sprinter but I started following the career of his brother, Black Aztec, which was owned by David Carey.
"After Black Aztec got beaten a couple of times I was able to buy him for only $2,500 and he went on to win the 1980 Melbourne Cup, still my biggest thrill in the sport, the 1981 Hobart Thousand and then, when switched to long distance races, the 1981 Association Cup over 732 metres at Harold Park."
Harry has always had the knack of being able to snare a future champion and he bought both Kirsty’s Charity and Tenthill Doll as performed greyhounds.
"A mate saw Kirsty’s Charity win at Wauchope and said she could be a star so I bought her for $20,000, which was huge money in those days.
"But when she won the 1988 Sydney Cup on the Wenty grass track she smashed the previous race record by nearly three tenths of a second and was judged NSW Greyhound of the Year.
"Ray Richards, the former Australian Socceroo star, asked me to find him a dog and after seeing Tenthill Doll race in Brisbane I offered her connections $20,000 for her.
"They hesitated so I promised them 50% of Tenthill Doll’s first two litters and secured her.
"In 1995 Tenthill Doll was named NSW Greyhound of the Year and took that award again 12 months later after she had won the 1996 Golden Easter Egg and Australian Cup finals."
While Black Aztec, Kirsty’s Charity and Tenthill Doll have been Harry’s superstars he also had tremendous success with No Way Gloria, Spoken Joe and Hidden Blade.
In January, 2001, over 720m at Wentworth Park, No Way Gloria gave a 13 length drubbing to Pearl Larricki, a champion stayer who was to become the NSW Greyhound of the Year, clocking 42.35, which was a new track record.
And sprinter Spoken Joe, who won 22 of 40 starts for Harry, won five Wentworth Park 520m races in succession in 1998, breaking the 30 second barrier on each occasion, a then unheard of achievement.
Two starts after notching his fifth straight win, Spoken Joe set a new Wentworth Park record of 29.78 but troublesome wrists stopped his career prematurely.
Hidden Blade was the source of Harry’s biggest racing disappointment two decades ago. The greyhound went through the Australian Cup series undefeated, only to be skittled at the first turn as he was going to the lead in the final.
More recently He’s My Future, which Harry trained for Channel 10’s eye in the sky traffic reporter Vic Lorusso, won nine Wentworth Park 720m races before suffering a career ending injury.
Harry laments the closure of U-turn tracks Harold Park and CESSNOCK yet is not a fan of Bulli, instead plumping for Bathurst as his favourite course.
"Bathurst is a great guide to Wentworth Park, whatever they run there they will run at Wenty," he said.
He plumps for Brett Lee as the best greyhound he has seen, with National Lass, Baguio and Alpha Brava not far behind, although he hastens to add that he never saw Zoom Top in action.
Harry currently has 28 greyhounds in work with Black Empress being the star.
Harry advises that he will have "several hot young prospects hitting the tracks shortly".
