In the early days of the NSW Greyhound of the Year awards, which ran from 1965 to 2013, a highly prized "second'' acknowledgment was to the Quinella King or Queen of each season.
If such a title was in place today the Noelene Holloway owned and trained King Kinloch would be a "shoo-in'' as last Friday at LADBROKES GARDENS he earned his 42nd runner's up cheque.
King Kinloch's record stands at 134 starts for four wins, 42 seconds and 24 thirds, but before any "purists" scoff at his record, a proud Holloway points out that her greyhound has earned $34,000 prizemoney.
"While all his racing since March, 2019 has been over 388m or 400m, King Kinloch can see out 520m, don't forget he won his maiden over that distance at Wentworth Park in early 2019,'' Holloway said.
"King Kinloch turns four next month so will become eligible for Masters’ races and when that happens I plan to bring him back to Wenty for another crack at 520m.''
There is often a tale behind greyhounds with quirky names and Meat Pie Hero, who ran the race of his life when second to Fire On Ice at Wentworth Park on Saturday night, is no exception.
Meat Pie Hero, who has had three wins and nine placings from 19 starts, is owned and trained at Auburn by Kevin Barton, a lifetime Western Suburbs Magpies fanatic.
"I named the dog after a bloke called Trevor Cogger, who played for the Magpies in the 1980s and '90s,'' Barton explained at WP on Saturday.
"During his second season with Wests, Trevor had completed a third grade match and was sitting on the hill watching the first grade and enjoying his usual post match treat of a cold beer and a hot meat pie.
"Alan Neil, the Magpies half back came off injured, and next minute Terry Lamb, their five-eighth, was carried off.
"Over the public address system came a call for Trevor Cogger to get to the dressing room quickly and to bring his footy boots.
"Straight after demolishing a beer and a pie, Trevor was asked to run out and play first grade but his unusual pre-game preparation didn't affect him because in that match, his first grade debut, he scored two tries and helped his team defeat the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs.
"The next day a Sydney newspaper dubbed him the Meat Pie Hero.''
Cogger went on to play 160 first grade games for the Magpies and 308 tries in first, second and third grades as well as scoring a club record total of 88 tries in all three grades.
"His greyhound namesake is pretty talented too and should have no trouble winning a race or two at Wenty, although he is a lot better suited when he is in an early race, because he tends to play up in the kennels,'' Barton added.
Our NSW representatives excelled in Saturday night's group 1 festival at Melbourne's The Meadows, with Karina Britton's Wow blitzing his red hot rivals in The Temlee, reserve Cawborne Footrot getting a late call-up but finishing fast to snare second placing in The Rookie Rebel, and Stanley Road going under by a nose in The Zoom Top.
"That tiny nose margin made a difference of $50,000 to us but I'm still rapt,'' trainer Mark Gatt said.
"I had sent Stanley Road down to Melbourne trainer Paul Bartolo for The Zoom Top campaign and he fell in love with the dog.
"Because Stanley Road has thrived down there, he will stay with Paul and tackle next Saturday night's heats of the group 1 Fanta Bale Super Stayers over 725m at The Meadows.''
