Jimmy Gallaway has been in greyhound racing for “a long time … more than 50 years”, and when you ask if he ever thought there would be a race in his sport worth $1 million to the winner, you are greeted with laughter.
Then some more laughter, before the 87-year-old trainer stops and answers: “It’s all a big dream to win something like that isn’t it?”
Dreams do sometimes become reality, and courtesy of the win of his bitch Little Zephyr in the Grafton Regional Final of the TAB Million Dollar Chase on Saturday evening, Jimmy’s greyhound is into the semi-finals of the world’s richest greyhound race and, he can actually now dare to dream.
“I guess that’s the way it goes, you have got to dream, but it’s all about luck isn’t it?
“You get a lot of really good dogs in those races though, and you’ve got to draw well and have a lot of luck in running. It’s all a matter of the way things pan out.”
Jimmy hasn’t been to Wentworth Park for quite some time. He used to take dogs down to Sydney from time to time but the last one was a while ago.
“We’ve got 30 or 40 dogs here (at Warragai Creek just north of Grafton) and someone has to be here looking after them,” he explained. “Julie (King, his partner) is younger than I am and she likes going everywhere, so I’m prepared to stay home and do the dogs and watch it on TV.
Little-zephyr">Little">Little Zephyr used her box one draw to perfection in the Grafton final, spearing to the lead and carving out time in front which gave her rivals Little chance of hauling her in.
She stopped the clock in career best figures of 25.24s with 3¼ lengths to spare over Barefoot Ronnie with Pike a further half-length away in third. Both the placegetters now also head to the city for the Chase semi-finals.
The win took Little Zephyr’s record to nine starts for five wins and a placing.
