With 2011 well and truly over the National Coursing Association had one final task to finalize their 2011 Coursing Season.
On Thursday 26th January they crowned their Coursing Greyhound of the Year at an Awards dinner hosted by the NCAV Executive at Sandown Park.
After a stellar season, Queen Selene, trained by David Dawson of Crossover took out not one but two of the industry awards.
The Big Daddy Cool x Queen Cleopatra, Oct. 2009 whelped bitch competed at seven meetings. She coursed 26 times winning a total of 22 courses. As a youngster she was able to course in the Puppy events all season, but did take on the open class greyhounds in the Waterloo Cup. Unfortunately, after contesting five of the six required courses for the prestigious event, she was withdrawn from the final course due to injury. She has recovered and recently saluted on the circle at Sandown.
Eddie Caruana(MGRA) and Geoff Dawson (SGRC) at the presentation of 2011 Coursing Greyhound of the Year (Queen Selene) with the Owners, the Belsham Family from Drouin. Queen Selene has won at Sandown and is putting some handy races togther.
The Owner of the Year award went to the Whitford Syndicate of Yarram. The Syndicate presented greyhounds at eight meetings and were rewarded with six stakes and had the runner-up in seven stakes. Two trainers flew the flag for the Syndicate, Graham Whitford and his niece Bianca. This is the Whitford Syndicates second win as they also took out the trophy in 2010
In a new innovation for the Coursing, we also had a Junior Encouragement award. The recipient of the inaugural award was Kayla Cotterill-Knocker. Kayla attended every meeting throughout the season and was often seen in the catching pen assisting trainers with catching duties and bringing dogs back to their trailers for connections. Given the long hours spent on the road travelling with the Secretary to get to these meetings, it was a grand effort for a little lady who had to get up and go to school early the next morning. As seasoned coursing goers know .... sometimes the long tiring days make it hard to get up the next morning. Well done Kayla.
David Dawson rounded out the evening by also being awarded the Coursing Trainer of the Year title. After attending seven of the meetings over 10 days during the season, and having travelled from the tiny hamlet of Crossover in West Gippsland, to Longwood, Benalla, Melton and Lang Lang it is estimated that he and his team trekked approximately 5,375 km, David finished the season with six winners and a further seven runner-up results and a total of 19 points.
The season would not have been possible without three very important men and a big thank you goes out to Richard Adderley, Gary Brett & Troy Sait who are our “Slippers”. Along with the many volunteers that assist at the meetings, we are indebted to your commitment and devotion to coursing and we hope that you will all be back for the 2012 season.
Another integral party to coursing is our friendly bookmaker, Gary Thomas. With a keen eye for a good runner, and a good memory on how they run up from meeting to meeting, Gary is one of a dying breed and we are very happy that he chooses to spend his days travelling all over the State to attend our meetings.
Towards the conclusion of the evening we had one more important task to carry out and were assisted by the CEO of GRV Dr John Stephens who drew the winners from the barrel and the results are:
1st 50” plasma television -Noel Boyd from Cranbourne,
2nd Navman satellite navigator - Ken Murphy from Benalla,
3rd 7” Media/DVD player -Greg Couldridge from Newstead
4th $50 Bunning’s voucher -Clint Anderson, photographer of Bluestream Media proving once again that coursing covers the width and breadth of our State. A big thank you to everyone who supported the fundraising effort.
The National Coursing Association of Victoria congratulates all of the award winners and participants and wishes everyone continued good coursing and success in the coming season.
As the NCAV had Key Performance Indicators that needed to be met to ensure the future of Coursing. It was a pleasing season that catered for 457 different greyhounds. In total 781 greyhounds coursed and 939 nominations were received for the entire season. The NCAV paid out a total of $84,810 in prizemoney. We saw 324 owners represented and 203 trainers attended the meetings.
As we move towards the 2012 season there have been a number of changes with a new Secretary, Cynthia O’Brien having been appointed by the Executive. Cynthia has a long history of involvement with coursing as both a participant and as a previous Executive Member and Publicity Officer.
Mr Tony Mills holds the position of President and former Secretary Heather Villinger continues in the role of treasurer for the 2012 season. As part of the changes, there is a new email for the National Coursing Association and it is Secretary@ncavictoria.com.au . Please feel free to contact us with any questions or ideas.
The NCAV are also looking forward to the return of the Victoria Coursing Club, albeit at a new location. Long time coursing enthusiasts will remember when the VCC conducted meetings at the Geelong Racecourse, but this is no longer viable due to the thoroughbred racing commitments at that venue.
The VCC is the oldest coursing club in Victoria and it will relocate to the historic Newstead Racecourse to conduct coursing this season on a newly built track. The hardworking committee of VCC – Newstead are planning a two day picnic meeting on the long weekend in June, and all coursing enthusiasts are invited to attend. More details will be available on the NCAV website in the coming months.
With the 2012 season almost upon us and the calendar awaiting ratification we are all looking forward to an exciting season that will see the running of the 140th Waterloo Cup.
We look forward to seeing old and new faces at our venues this season and invite everyone to Catch On to Coursing!
That's the catch phrase for the 2012 season. A couple of years back we kicked off this slogan and we had a magificent carved greyhound to accompany us around our coursing clubs aptly named ALL CARVED UP.
As we await approval of our proposed calendar, we all need to startthinking about which of our canines can have a tilt at coursing. Once approved the calendar will be released and distributed via all media mediums.
With 2011 well and truly over the National Coursing Association had one final task to finalize their 2011 Coursing Season.
Eddie Caruana(MGRA) and Geoff Dawson (SGRC) at the presentation of 2011 Coursing Greyhound of the Year (Queen Selene) with the Owners, the Belsham Family from Drouin. Queen Selene has won at Sandown and is putting some handy races togther.
The Owner of the Year award went to the Whitford Syndicate of Yarram. The Syndicate presented greyhounds at eight meetings and were rewarded with six stakes and had the runner-up in seven stakes. Two trainers flew the flag for the Syndicate, Graham Whitford and his niece Bianca. This is the Whitford Syndicates second win as they also took out the trophy in 2010
In a new innovation for the Coursing, we also had a Junior Encouragement award. The recipient of the inaugural award was Kayla Cotterill-Knocker. Kayla attended every meeting throughout the season and was often seen in the catching pen assisting trainers with catching duties and bringing dogs back to their trailers for connections. Given the long hours spent on the road travelling with the Secretary to get to these meetings, it was a grand effort for a little lady who had to get up and go to school early the next morning. As seasoned coursing goers know .... sometimes the long tiring days make it hard to get up the next morning. Well done Kayla.