Gary Clark, now a regular on Sky Channel, will achieve a remarkable milestone when he calls Friday's Group 3 Goulburn Cup - the 40th final the popular broadcaster will have covered.
Clark, who has been president of the Goulburn club for 13 years, called his first Goulburn Cup in 1981, missing only the 1991 and 1999 finals due to ill health.
"My favourite winner has to be the Mark Wilcox-trained Natural Player, who won in 2014 and held track records as well as being a Goulburn Greyhound of the Year,'' Clark said.
"He was a beautiful blue dog and I had a real soft spot for him.
"Other winners which stand out especially were Christine Oldfield's NOVEMBER PRINCE, who won in 1985 and '86 and of course Wow, winner of the 2020 and 2021 finals.
"On a more personal note I enjoyed watching Heading West, trained by a dear friend, the late Mark Hardy, being successful in 1994.
"I was also thrilled to see Mellcat Big Boy victorious for long-time sponsors John and Cath Mellon last year because they had almost lost their home in a bushfire as well as battling a lot of health issues.
"Longest priced winner I can recall was Speedy Laroo, who was a $41 chance in 1982 when he won for Pat and Carmel Gammidge, who trained out of the inner Sydney suburb of Botany but were Goulburn regulars.''
Okey confirmed his rating as Wentworth Park's best short course speedster by notching his eighth win in 15 appearances over the 280m trip on Friday night.
Okey took his earnings to over $53,000 with yet another all-the-way win, stopping the clock at 15.91 with a slick first split of 5.18.
His winning time was just .06sec wide of his personal best figures at Wentworth Park but trainer Lindsay Davis has no intention of testing her wonderful money-spinner over 520m.
"He has won over 388m at Gosford and 400m at The Gardens but when he won recently at GosfordOkey's first section was 9.80 which is absolutely flying,'' Davis said.
"Because Okey puts so much into the early part of his races, at the end of 400m there is not a lot left in the tank so I don't think he would get 520m.
"So no, although his mother Ketakey won over 520m at WP and broke 30sec there, I'll restrict Okey to sprints.
"I'm now training six members of Ketakey's next litter, sired by Shima Shine, and at 16 months of age they are doing every thing right, I'm pretty excited by them.''
Okey is something of a rarity, being listed in the racebook as white although Davis said: "He has a few black marks above his eyes, we call them his eyebrows.''
