The late Terry Hill has got his wish and his champion chaser Shall Not will lead the NSW Team against Queensland in the 2024 Straight of Origin.
Teams were announced on Monday and Shall Not was named alongside the David Smith-trained pair Express Ethics and Jazzy Ethics, and Macona Express trained by Jamie Hawkins to represent NSW.
Terry Hill passed away after a heart attack while in The Philippines back in April but for several months prior he had been telling Shall Not’s trainer Darren Sultana that he was desperate to race in the Straight of Origin.
Hill played 14 matches for NSW in State Of Origin, but he also thrived on the Origin format in greyhound racing, and was captain of the NSW team in recent years.
In 2023 Shall Not won the Straight of Origin race up the straight at Capalaba, south-east of Brisbane.
After his passing Sultana revealed how much Hill wanted to again chase the title.
“He has had one mission on his mind for the last three months,” Sultana said.
“Terry was an owner who never got too involved, he let me do my thing, but he found out when the Straight of Origin race was on at Capalaba and he said you have one mission, the Capalaba race. I said: “yeah, we’ll just take it as it comes”, but he was like: “no, I found out the date, that’s what you’ve got to set him for”.
In honour of the champion rugby league star the $40,000 to the winner event has been renamed in 2024 and will be now known as the Terry Hill Straight Of Origin. It will be run at Capalaba on Sunday, June 16.
Queensland also named their team which will be headed up by Capalaba Cup winner, Valhalla for Tom Tzouvelis, along with kennel mate Rio Will Rock, Fernando Grand for Gary Mackay and Jedda Cutlack’s That’s Hot.
