Gayle Masterson and Bill Bright picked up the two major awards at the Maitland branch of the GBOTA presentation night.
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Masterson, of Hexham, was named Leading Female Trainer following the continued success of her group dog Knight Sprite while Bright, of Neath, was named Leading Male Trainer for a stellar season spearheaded by the ever-consistent Von Costa Kahn and the talented Zipping Rio.
Masterson and Knight Sprite also won the trophy for Best TAB Performer, Best Middle Distance Performer, Best Dog and Overall Best Greyhound.
In a season that netted 15 wins, Knight Sprite won the $40,000 group 2 Gosford Gold Cup in January and the $36,000 group 2 Richmond Derby in March.
Bright also won the Best Sprint Performer (shared with the Peter Akers-trained Leggy Blonde) and Best Distance Performer with Von Costa Kahn.
Greta owner, breeder and trainer Peter Akers enjoyed a big night at the awards with Leggy Blonde named the Best Non-TAB Performer, Best Bitch and joint winner of the Best Sprint Performer.
Akers also kept a tight hold on the Leading Brood Bitch award following the continued success of Rum Blaster.
The other award winners were Tony Edmunds from the Jack Hawkins Racing Syndicate winning the Leading Owner award with Navigator Jack, Maureen Bashford winning the Small Teams Award and Charlie Goodall winning the John Lodge Memorial Battlers Trophy.
Good Karma
Welsh Karma delivered a $5300 pay-day for Bobs Farm owner-trainer Wendy Ison when he led throughout to win the Ladbrokes Maitland Monthly Medal maiden series final at Maitland on Thursdayafternoon.
The son of Billy The Sid and Junior Tiny Tot had started nine times for five placings prior to Thursday’sfinal and a box four draw saw him start at $11.80 on the tote.
Welsh Karma pinged the lids and never looked like being run down as he clocked a slick 25.26s for the 450 metres to beat the Allan Buman-trained Far A Part by two and a half lengths with the Jamie Saunders-trained Bula Big Al third.
Heritage Cup
A big crowd from the Commercial Hotel Morpeth was at the Maitland Showground track on Thursdayafternoon to watch the Mark Wilcox-trained Sweetwater Boy win the Morpeth Heritage Cup Final.
Sweetwater Boy took his tally to 14 wins and 11 placings from 31 starts with a powerful run from box seven to win the 450m sprint in 25.36s.
The Ray Morris-trained Duck’s Luck was five and three quarter lengths second with Laurie’s Jacki third for trainer Simon Ma.
A big thank you to the gang from the Commercial Hotel for their continued support of our sport.
Manners farewell
It was great to see a big crowd from Tomago Aluminium at the track on Thursday to farewell their workmate Bob Manners, who was retiring after 30 years at the smelter.
Manners was called on to draw the winners of the Maitland Supporters Club raffle, which raised $556 for the Greyhound Alliance Fighting Fund.
The boys won a couple of prizes in the raffle and backed a few winners as well.
Trainer reminder
Trainers are reminded that trials will not be held at Maitland on Monday, October 3 because of the long weekend. The session has been moved to Tuesday, October 4 with ticket sales from 7.30am and trials starting at 8am.
Trials will return to the usual Monday and Friday mornings after that.
Trainers should also note that the daylight saving start times are now in place with public trials starting at 8am and run-on arm trials at 9.30am. Tickets go on sale from 7.30am both day.
Trials are also held after the last race each Thursday evening.
