It’s the toughest question anyone has to ask of themselves: When is the right time to walk away? For Ron and Judy Fisher, the answer is now.
The South Coast couple have been involved in greyhound racing for more than four decades, but the time has come to bid farewell to the sport they love.
“We’re both in our 70s now and we’re leaving the sport mainly due to health reasons,” Judy said. “We still love the dogs but unfortunately Ronnie has had quite a lot of health problems - he’s had three heart attacks and he died (before being resuscitated) once.
“As much as I love the dogs, my shoulder’s gone, the back’s gone, the eyes are gone, I can’t drive any more of a night, so it really became a decision we had to make.
“But we have loved our lives in greyhound racing.”
The Dapto club last Thursday honoured the couple with the Enjoy Retirement Ron & Judy Fisher Free-For-All, and Shoalhaven Greyhound Club secretary-manager Glenn Midson was full of praise of the local couple’s input into the sport.
“They have been around as long as I can remember,” Midson said. “Ron served on the Shoalhaven Club’s board for a number of years, and they have both been a big part of the local club.
“And they were very good with their dogs. It was very rarely that they couldn’t get the best out of a dog.
“As far as Shoalhaven Greyhound Club, we would like to wish them well in retirement away from the greyhounds, it’s probably something that didn’t come easy, but something at a time of their lives when they needed to do it.”
GRNSW’s Chief Operating Officer Wayne Billett echoed the sentiments of Midson on behalf of GRNSW and the Dapto club.
“Ron and Judy have been fabulous ambassadors for our industry, in particular down on the South Coast,” Billett said. “They have had some great dogs over the years and have been a fixture here at Dapto and down at Nowra.
“We will naturally miss seeing their faces around the track, but wish them a very happy retirement, and expect to see them back from time to time as spectators.”
The Fishers are bowing out in form too, having only two weeks earlier had a winning double at Dapto with Tommy Typhon and Lollobrigida.
Ron explained that a move to Goulburn around 1976 to play rugby league, proved be the catalyst for the couple’s entry into the sport.
“It was a pretty good greyhound area and some of the guys I worked with had dogs and that’s how I got involved,” Ron said. “
“We have had some pretty handy ones over the years and I have probably forgot a few, but I think our favourite dog was Indian Larry. We got him from Mick Abbott who Judy had worked for.
“He was a good dog, he didn’t win that many overall but I think his last 12 of 15 starts were all in Group races and he ran placings in most of them, he just couldn’t crack it for a win.
“He was beaten a nose in a Rookie Rebel in Melbourne (by Train A Journey) and was third in a Vic Peters (behind the Dailly-trained Cromlah Bale).
“He was a good hard chaser, but his pattern of racing that he wasn’t quick early made it very hard for him in top company. You would always think he had no chance but he would charge home.”
Away from racing, Ron conceded a highlight of his career in the sport had been when he was on the board at the Shoalhaven club at a time when the track went from grass to loam, and when the Pinebowl was given TAB status.
“Owen Makin was our president then and it was a really exciting time for everyone at the club, and everyone in the region,” Ron said.
Ron and Judy are both sad to be leaving the sport they loved, and each says they will miss it, but as Ron said: “there’s a new chapter of our lives ahead of us.”
“We are going to do a bit of travelling,” Ron revealed. “We’re not going to get a campervan or anything. I just sold the (dog) van, and bought a new car, and now - unlike when you have dogs - we can just hop in the car whenever we feel like it, and go and we’re both looking forward to that.”
Dapto also honoured race caller Tim Newbold who - having announced last month that he would be moving away from race calling to take up a new challenge at GRNSW - was calling his final Dapto meeting after spending the past seven years calling races at the track.
