Greyhounds » Inductees
Please select inductee below:
- Sandi's Me Mum inducted in 2007
- Afro Freeway inducted in 2010
- Grant Langston inducted in 2010
Sandi's Me Mum (1980s/1990s)
During the late 1980's and early 1990's Sandi's Me Mum brought greyhound racing into the living rooms of many West Australians for the first time.
The brilliant front-running sprinter's 92-start career saw her victorious on an amazing 62 occasions with 18 placings and $273,000 in stakemoney (when elite thoroughbreds were just reaching the $1million career mark).
Bred, reared and trained by the late Gerry O'Keefe and owned jointly with his partner Betty Lorrimar, Sandi's Me Mum came from a litter that accumulated a staggering 196 wins.
Affectionately known by her kennel name “Cuddles”, she was renowned for her racetrack rivalry with litter-sister Sand Pebble, the most famous being their quinellas in the WA Sprint and National Sprint Titles in 1989.
Sandi's Me Mum became Australia's first (and only) dual National Sprint Champion, winning successive titles at Cannington in 1989 and Sandown Park in Victoria in 1990.
She was WA's first dual Greyhound of the Year winner (1989 and 1990), and was voted one of the world's best eight greyhounds in 1990 by the World Greyhound Federation in Massachusetts, USA.
A four-time track record holder – three at Cannington and one at Mandurah, Sandi's Me Mum won 15 feature finals. She raced in the pre-Group Race era, but by today's standards her wins equate to four Group 1, one Group 2 and two Group 3's.
Becoming Australia's highest stakes earner surpassing Dancing Gamble's $134,825 in 1990, she was the first greyhound to pass $150,000, $200,000 and $250,000 in career stakes.
An extremely successful brood bitch whelping five litters that included many multiple winners. Many of her bitches have since become successful brood bitches in their own right
In 2001 Sandi's Me Mum was an Honorary Inductee into the Australian Greyhound Racing Association Hall of Fame.
Afro Freeway (1980s)
The brilliant front-running stayer’s 39-start career saw him win on 27 occasions and miss a place only twice, thus earning him the nickname ‘The Invincible’.
Owned and trained by well-respected conditioner Keith Harding, Afro Freeway to this very day still holds the State record for the most consecutive wins at 14. All those wins were over the 638m and 740m distances at Cannington and Mandurah.
Afro Freeway set no less than four track records at Cannington and Mandurah over 638m along with two at Cannington and one at Mandurah over 740m. He was renowned for his early speed in his races, so much so that he set an unofficial 295m track record at Cannington in the process of running over 740m.
So dominant was Afro Freeway over the staying trips; that rival trainers often refused to nominate their greyhounds against him. He never finished unplaced over the longer journeys, winning at 22 of his 26 starts. Afro Freeway started favourite in all but three of his WA starts, odds-on 25 times and on many occasions at the prohibitive odds of ten to one on. He won many races by huge margins, the largest at 26 lengths, with an average winning margin of 15 lengths over staying trips prior to the famous 1 July 1983 match race against Empty Street.
Known around his kennel by the name ‘Toby’, Afro Freeway was awarded the 1983 WA Greyhound of the Year Title in a year where he was widely regarded as the best stayer in Australia.
A greyhound whose career was seriously curtailed by ill-timed injuries and the effects of being attacked by two domestic dogs on a Fremantle beach, Afro Freeway twice missed the opportunity to represent Western Australia in the National Championships where he would have proved himself on the national stage.
Principal Wins
1982 Spring Gift (638m) 1982 Galaxy (638m) 1983 New Year Gift (740m) 1983 Distance Gift (740m) 1983 Match Race against Empty Street (740m) 1983 Greyhound Coaches Gift (638m) 1983 Winter Cup (740m) 1983 Spring Gift (638m)Grant Langston (1980s/1990s)
Langston totally dominated greyhound racing during its second decade, taking out the Trainer’s Premiership at both Cannington and Mandurah for the ten consecutive years between 1985 and 1994, after winning two premierships at Mandurah prior to that in 1982 and 1983.
He trained an Australian record 187 winners in 1988, which saw him nominated for The West Australian Caltex Sports Star of the Year Award for a second time in 1988-89, the only greyhound trainer to ever receive such acknowledgement.
To this day Langston still shares the record of training six winners on a card at a Cannington meeting, which he did at least twice. History shows that only two other trainers have been able to match that feat in the 36 years the code has been in operation in Western Australia.
Throughout his career, Langston trained the winners of 15 feature events which would have Group Race status in this modern era, including the Perth Cup once, the Galaxy twice and the All Stars Sprint on five occasions. At Mandurah he trained the winner of both “The Schweppes” (then known as the Mandurah Cup) and the Birthday Cup three times.
He earned the right to represent the State on four occasions following victories in the WA Distance Championship and trained no less than 39 winners of additional documented feature events during his much-celebrated training career.
