THE myriad of trophies won by Australian greyhound racing legend Zoom Top are for sale.
Leah Watt, who with husband Hec bred and raced the immortal bitch, in association with her son Geoff, told Greyhounds Qld Magazine this recently.
Well advertise them worldwide, said Geoff. They will be for sale as a complete package.
Obviously wed like to see them retained in Australia, but if they are sold overseas to a collector, then so be it.
Geoff has no idea what price the collection will bring and has no idea, at this stage, what price the family will ask.
Leah is 87 and lives with Geoff and his wife Robyn at their Casino home on the Northern Rivers of NSW.
Geoff explained that there are so many trophies involved in the collection and that with age creeping upon immediate family members, something had to be done to ensure the collections future.
A builder, Geoff is making plans to build a massive trophy cabinet which will permanently store the collection.
If we cannot sell the collection, he said. Then maybe we could look at leasing it for specified times to interested parties, like race clubs, museums.
Geoff is planning for the trophy cabinet to store all the great bitchs trophies, a massive framed photo of her as a centerpiece, plus her race record, some of the many articles written about her, and a video of some of her races.
The cabinet and its contents will be specially sealed and kept at a special temperature to protect it.
Zoom Top raced 136 times for 68 wins, 25 seconds and 14 thirds. She won an Australian record $59,032 in prizemoney.
She raced on 27 different tacks, winning on 24, she set or equalled 15 track records and won from 292m to 795m, winning from every box including boxes nine and 10 at Richmond when the club raced up the straight.
Zoom Top made 17 of the 21 major finals she contested winning 11.
Those wins included the:
1968 and 1969 Wentworth Park Gold Cup
1968 and 1969 Association Cup
1968 Richmond Oaks
1968 Dapto Silver Collar
1968 Sydney Cup
1968 Summer Cup
1968 NSW St Leger
1969 Olympic Park Distance Championship
1969 NCA Cup at Sandown
We have so many, many trophies in the collection, said Geoff.
Many of the smaller trophies were given to Hec and Leah thanking them for taking Zoom Top to race at the many tracks on which she competed.
August, 2016 will mark 50 years since Zoom Top was whelped.

THE elderly woman pottering about the expansive garden in the quiet street on the outskirts of Casino could be mistaken for just about anyones dear grandma.
She goes about either behind the wheeled walker, or sitting astride a motorized cart, watering plants, checking on flowers and generally keeping an eye on things.
Except that this is no ordinary woman.
She is Leah Watt and in greyhound racing she is half of the Zoom Top legend.
Leah is 87, 88 next March.
Since early in the year she has been living at Casino with her eldest son Geoff. Leah has been helping Geoffs wife Robyn look after her son since he underwent an operation to remove his esophagus late last year.
Cancer forced its removal. Doctors moved the stomach to the top, said Geoff. I was in intensive care for five days. It was a six-hour operation and there is a lot of scarring left.
In 2016, it will be 50 years since Zoom Top was whelped, the fawn daughter of Black Top-Busy Beaver. She took Leah and her late husband Hec on a whirlwind ride that hasnt stopped yet.
Only recently, Leah unpacked every trophy the legend won and cleaned them. It took Leah two and a half weeks to get them back to their original best.
Then she, Geoff and Robyn arranged them on the familys pool table and photographed them. Memories came flooding back.
And what memories they are.
Ask anyone who has been in greyhound racing for more than a couple of decades to name the best greyhound they have seen and almost always it will be Zoom Top.
There were better sprinters and sometimes ever better stayers, but Zoom Top was a champion, an all distance champion able to mix sprinting and distance racing like none other.
Geoff Watt was a newly married young man during the legend of Zoom Top.
I firmly believe Zoom Top is the greatest athlete of all time, he said with no hint of family bias. Look at what she did and how she did it.
Makybe Diva won three Melbourne Cups but she could never drop back to a five furlong sprint and win, he said. Carl Lewis never once ran 10,000 metres in between his 100 metre sprints.
And Black Caviar will never run over two miles.
But the Zoom Top legend stars way, way before Black Top mated Busy Beaver, way before Geoff Watt even thought about training a greyhound.
It starts with a couple of families born and bred on the Northern Rivers, bred among greyhound country.
Leah Watts move back to Casino is a homecoming for it was on the Northern Rivers of NSW that she was born and grew up.
She and her twin sister Ruth (Parsons, also of great greyhound fame) were born and bred in Kyogle. Her father George Bursle was from Gundagai. Mum Grace came from England.
Dad was on the swag when he was 15, said Leah. He settled in Kyogle and married mum.
George worked for the local Council. Dad had a joke for us, and anyone who would listen, every day of his life, said Leah.
Leah and Ruth, as twins often are, were inseparable as kids.
I remember the pair of us rolling up leaves into papers and smoking them when we were just bits of kids, said Leah.
In those days, Nellie Watt was matron at the local hospital where she delivered the babies from around the district. Nellie was the most wonderful person, said Leah.
Her view might be swayed a little because Leah also took a fancy to Nellies brother Hec. Because we were always hanging around Nellie, I got to know Hec.
Hec could do anything, said Leah. He was a farmer all his early life but was never taught a thing. He was self taught at everything he did. He could make or do anything he tried his hand at.
It was war time and when Ruth and Leah turned 18, they headed to Sydney to join the womens army.
Hec followed.
The war finished in 1945 just after we got there, said Leah. Hec had got tired of farming and wanted to enlist but because he was in a protected industry he wasnt allowed to.
Hec arrived in Sydney and when Leah turned 19 they were married. Hec was 29.
They lived in Sydney for a time, Hec finding work as a packer. He also worked a couple of nights a week on the tumble bug ride at Luna Park.
The newlyweds were settled in Sydney until Hecs mum Harriett wrote to him asking for their return to the share farm she was on at the time.
Ruth stayed on in Sydney in the army.
The Watts son Geoff arrived in 1945 and was followed 18 months apart by Ron, Margaret and Malcolm.
Leah says the Watt family has always been lucky. We are not particularly religious, but everything seems to come to us, she said.
That was evident during a walk through Lismore township a couple of years after they had returned to the Rivers.
Nellie had moved to the Lismore Hospital for a time and we were in town to visit her, said Leah. We walked past a ticket seller. The prize was a Vauxhall car worth 600 pound.
I bought a ticket each for the boys, Geoff and Ron, and Rons ticket won.
Hec took the car to Brisbane and sold it.
It bought their first home, a 150-acre property at Wadeville just 15 miles toward the coast from Kyogle.
Wed saved 200 pound while we were living in Sydney, added the 600 pound from the car and got the extra 100 pound to buy the property for 900 pound.
Because the property was in such a remote part of the Rivers, they also bought a truck called a Willys. Hec had walked anywhere and everywhere before that.
The Willys was a big truck that had a canvas top on it, said Leah.
The farm was a dairy, but Hec would cut wood and deliver it into Kyogle. You have to remember there wasnt much electricity in those days and most people cooked with fire stoves, said Leah. Hed charge two pound for the firewood and would wait a month to get paid.
Hec cut down those massive trees himself by hand.
When we did get electricity, he cut the poles down himself.
Eventually Hec turned the Willys into a motor saw.
The Watts stayed on the property for seven years.
It was to be their introduction to greyhound racing.
Ally Norris approached us asking if he bred a litter would we rear the pups, said Leah. Hec and Leah were into greyhound racing.
They got the pick of two of the pups and eventually named them Sailor Royal and Silver Cosie. It would be the start of their natural approach to the rearing and training of greyhounds.
We grew all our own veges, used our own meat, everything was done naturally, said Leah.
When it came time to start racing, Hec and Leah concentrated on Lismore and Ballina which was still racing in those days. Sailor Royal proved a handy galloper.
Leah suffered from asthma and eventually it forced them into selling the property at Wadeville. They moved to Lismore and built a home there but stayed no longer than three months.
Leahs twin sister Ruth was still in Sydney and she tempted the family to head south settling at Yagoona.
Sailor Royal won at Dapto not long after but eventually became a house pet.
By 1964, Hec and Leah had enough money to buy two vacant five-acre blocks at Rossmore. It was there Hec and Leah would build their home and establish a greyhound centre that would be the envy of all.
Hec bought a few pups but few turned out to be what he wanted.
A chance visit to the Keep family, relations of Leahs, in Casino turned everything around.
Leah spotted a bitch called Busy Beaver. She was being trained by David (Keep) and running a lot of placings, said Leah. I reckoned she was off in the shoulder and asked if we could have a try with her in Sydney.
Busy Beaver was owned by Ashley Watt, Hecs cousin.
She was a brilliant bitch, a good solid, stocky bitch, said Leah. But she had a lot of injuries. We won a few races with her at Dapto, Temora and Cessnock. Hec loved going to the country tracks to race.
When it came time for Busy Beaver to retire to stud, everyone shied away from helping out.
Hec wanted to put her to Black Top, said Leah. But Ashley had 11 kids and couldnt afford to breed with her. So we bought her from Ashley. I cant even remember what we paid.
When Busy Beaver whelped five pups, Hec and Leah offered Ashley his share of the litter. But he couldnt afford to keep those pups, she said.
The litter was whelped on August 24, 1966.
By this time the Watts four children were teenagers or older.
We decided to give all the family a pick of the pups in the litter, said Leah.
Geoff picked out one of the fawn bitches.
He and Robyn had just been married and built a shed on the Watt property at Rossmore while his own home was being built. Hec built everything on the property himself, said Leah. It was a pretty hectic time.
Hec reared the pups and at nine months decided to get the two fawn bitches broken in.
Hec said I still hadnt paid for the fawn bitch and she had been reared in the meantime, said Geoff. Robyn and I were just married and we couldnt afford a dog.
Hec and Leah kept them all. They had done some early work on the litter and by the time they went to Stan Cleverleys to finish off their education, they were quite forward.
Cleverley gave both bitches a huge wrap.
The Watts would name them Zoom Top, Busys Charm, Busys Gem, Top Bomber and Busys Ace.
Geoff, who would become one of Sydneys great greyhound trainers not long after with a devastating run of success, says today that Hec and mum made those dogs.
They had their own cows for meat, chooks for eggs, grew their own veges, barley, everything they needed, he said. Hec even had his own worming techniques.
Those pups were given plenty of good galloping but as importantly were given a foundation in life that would be the basis of the way they could be raced later on.
Geoff remembers Zoom Top as being a very determined bitch.
You couldnt hold onto those pups, he said. They would be forever up on the lead wanting to get on with the job.
Zoom Top started racing at Goulburn on October 21, 1967 when she was just 14 months of age.
I can remember going to Goulburn, said Leah. In those days there were bad roads, dusty roads. But Hec loved to get to the country tracks.
Zoom Tops maiden win was over 500 yards with the first prize of $10.
It was to be the start of a phenomenal period in the lives of the Watt family and a glorious ride that would not end for years.
Leah admits her family has been touched.
We are blessed, she said. Everything seems to come to us.
While Zoom Top, and her position in the Australian greyhound racing Hall of Fame will forever have the Watt family in the limelight, that first Black Top-Busy Beaver mating also produced Busys Charm.
Busys Charm was as good as Zoom Top, said Leah. She won 52 races.
Top Bomber also became a high class race dog and would eventually have a stud career.
But it was Zoom Top who captured the heart of a nation.
Her feats have been well documented.
Briefly it is:
She raced 136 times for 68 wins, 25 seconds and 14 thirds. She won an Australian record $59,032 in prizemoney.
Zoom Top raced on 27 different tacks, winning on 24, she set or equalled 15 track records and won from 292m to 795m, winning from every box including boxes nine and 10 at Richmond when the club raced up the straight.
Zoom Top made 17 of the 21 major finals she contested winning 11.
Those wins included the:
1968 and 1969 Wentworth Park Gold Cup
1968 and 1969 Association Cup
1968 Richmond Oaks
1968 Dapto Silver Collar
1968 Sydney Cup
1968 Summer Cup
1968 NSW St Leger
1969 Olympic Park Distance Championship
1969 NCA Cup at Sandown

Geoff Watt might be just a tad biased, but when he says there has never been a champion of any sort to equal her ability.
Even Phar Lap, Black Caviar they couldnt do what Zoom Top did, said Geoff.
He points to the fact the bitch at one stage won an 800 yard top grade at Harold Park on a Saturday night, backed up over 900 yards at Beenleigh a few days later and broke three track records in the one race.
Two days later she won a top grade sprint at Grafton on her way back to Sydney and then won again over 800 yards at Harold Park the following Saturday night.
I believe she was an all sport champion, said Geoff. Name another champion who did what she did.
Zoom Top and her littermates were treated like family.
They were given so much attention, said Geoff. Zoom Top had a beautiful nature. But Hec and Leah lived for them, those dogs were full time.
Hec did all the muscle work on the litter.
Geoff says the professionalism Hec and Leah undertook was much more than anyone else at the time and the litter proved that.
There were highs and, of course, lows.
Probably the night when 14,000 people came to see her race at Harold Park was the night that I got the biggest thrill out of, said Leah.
But the lows too were memorable for the distaste it left with a family only trying to do their best for their dogs and the industry.
Zoom Top is famous for the rigorous routine she was put through by Hec, running over staying distances and then dropping back to sprints with ease, week in and week out.
Harold Park put on a couple of special races, a distance one week and a sprint the next week, said Geoff.
Zoom Top won the first one. The following week Hec nominated her but the club rang to say there would be no distance race for her that week. Hec asked why couldnt she run in the special sprint. She won that too.
But what that sort of routine did was to cause other trainers and experts to question Hecs training. Articles were written and plenty of opinion went against Hec and his champion.
It came to a head one night at Harold Park.
Hec was coming back down the straight after the race and people were actually booing him, said Geoff. One particular person came down to the outside rail and started yelling that Hec should be reported to the RSPCA. He said why dont you give her a spell.
Hec turned to the punter and said shes just won the race what more do you want.
But what those experts and the general public of the time didnt know was that Zoom Top, according to Geoff Watt, was actually thriving on such a training and racing regime.
Hec was being portrayed that he was flogging her to death, said Geoff. But what only we knew was that the bitch was loving all that racing.
Of course Zoom Top will also be remembered for the day at Goulburn on November 15, 1969.
It was a miserable afternoon to start with and became even more so.
It was a much hyped clash with the then rising staying star Bunyip Bint and the track at Goulburn was packed to see the pair continue their rivalry even though it was such a wet night.
Bad weather, very bad weather, said Leah. There was flooding and roads were blocked and it took us ages to get to the track.
Hec was in a bit of a state because of all the trouble we had just getting to the track. There was a lot of pressure on him.
Leah told Hec to keep a plastic rain coat on the bitch on the walk to the starting boxes in a bid to keep her dry. Hec forgot to take it off, a momentary slip, but one that had dramatic ramifications immediately afterwards.
Zoom Top finished last. Hec was fined and her legion of punters and fans became irate.
Hec said he would refund every punter on the track who had backed her, said Leah. But the stewards wouldnt allow that. Hec should have remembered to take off the rain coat, but the steward at the boxes should also have noticed.
But in the aftermath of that performance an even more serious occurrence would have a lasting impact.
Hec was bringing her back to the kennels and by this time people had lined either side of where he was walking, said Geoff. One of the punters kicked out and laid the boot into Zoom Top.
She suffered severe bruising to a hind leg and was out of action for the next 10 weeks.
She injured a toe at her next start at Dapto and four starts later was retired when she finished last at Dapto on March 19, 1970.
When Zoom Top was retired to stud, she produced two litters, one to Thunder Lane in November 1973, and the other to her great rival Benjamin John in January 1976.
It is interesting that most regard Zoom Top as a failure at stud but that is far from the case.
Critics always expect a champion like Zoom Top to produce a champion just like she. That is almost impossible and rarely happens.
While the much anticipated first litter to Thunder Lane were only moderate on the racetrack, it did include a dog called Storkey Lane who in turn would become the sire of the great Queensland galloper, Ray Gattis legend Call Me Roscoe.
Also from that Thunder Lane litter was a bitch called Busy Zoom who would also come to Queensland and to Lauries Joy she would produce Lauries Power a track record breaker at Capalaba.
But it was the Zoom Top mating to her former great rival Benjamin John that produced Zooms Wealth and she would go on to win eight races at Wentworth Park and three at Harold Park and included in her wins was the 1978 Surf Life Savers Cup at Wenty.
Zoom Top, at stud, became the dam of a city class feature race performer. Very few broodbitches can boast such a feat.
Unfortunately, Zoom Top was overshadowed by the feats at stud of her litter sister Busys Charm.
Busys Charm won numerous feature races and was a track record breaker herself. At stud she also went to Benjamin John and produced the great Busys Chief a prolific winner throughout the country when trained by Ron Watt.
He won the NSW St Leger and was runner-up in the Gabba Gold Cup to Dotie Wilson and the Vic Peters at Harold Park to Arctic Raider.
Busys Chief sired Maturity winner Storm Glade and the great producing bitches Busy Stroller and Club Stroller.
Busy Beaver would be mated to Black Top six times after the Zoom Top and Busys Charm litter and plenty of high class gallopers came from those matings including Top Em All, Classy Zoom, Bettina Zero, Zoom Again etc etc.
Busys Charm had only the one litter, that to Benjamin John which produced Busys Chief.
Geoff Watt remembers Zoom Top and Busys Charm getting into a fight at home and Busys Charm eventually dying from her injuries. It was an accident with terrible consequences, said Geoff. They got fed together and nearly tore each other up. Both got badly hurt.
In 1974, Hec and Leah decided to sell up at Rossmore.
They moved back to the Northern Rivers of NSW on an acreage property at Tintenbar.
It was where Zoom Top would die and where she is still buried today, in her Association Cup winners rug.
We buried her under a mango tree, said Leah. The people who bought the property from us are aware that is where the great Zoom Top is buried. I believe they still own the property today.
Geoff watt became a highly successful Sydney trainer and had huge success with many of Busy Beavers progeny and those of her daughters.
Hec Watt died in 1991.
Leah admits after that he became a bit of a gypsy moving from place to place among her family. She spent 20 years living with her daughter Margaret near Taree.
She moved to Casino in December last year to be close to Geoff after his operation.
My family are all workaholics, said Leah.
While the Zoom Top memories are now almost half a century gone, Leah admits she still has many memories of those heady days.
Very good memories, and a few bad ones, she said.
All greyhound racing knows Zoom Top. She was part of what most believe was the golden age of greyhound racing in this country.
She is a member of the Hall of Fame.
Much has been written about her.
In the passing of time, her standing as a true great of not only greyhound racing but of sport in Australia and the world over continues to build and build.
Geoff Watt may indeed be right. She could very well be the most extraordinary athlete this country has ever seen.
If you think greyhound racing in Australia, you think Zoom Top.
Leah Watt is 87 and living out her life in tranquility in Casino.
The many, many trophies that are packed away for safe keeping, the testament to the deeds of a wonderful, wonderful greyhound are there to prove just what a dog Zoom Top was.
Leah Watt doesnt need trophies.
She doesnt need articles in greyhound magazines.
She lived every minute of it.

GEOFF Watt became a trail blazer in greyhound racing.
How could he not considering the impact his parents, Hec and Leah Watt, had upon him.
Virtually from the moment Geoff Watt was born in 1945 on the Northern Rivers of NSW, he lived and breathed greyhounds.
His parents bred, reared and raced Zoom Top and many other greats.
No better dog people existed.
But Geoff proved himself to be at least their equal, if not even better.
Great trainers learned their trade from Geoff Watt.
Whenever he went racing, anywhere in the country, dog men picked his brains.
Geoff and his wife Robyn lived their early married life in a shed on a five-acre property at Rossmore next door to Hec and Leah. They did this while their home and greyhound kennels were built at Bringelly on six and a quarter acres.
We started training in 1970, said Geoff a builder by trade who these days runs a successful building company on the Northern Rivers of NSW the roots of the Watt family.
Geoff Watt didnt just train greyhounds.
He dominated greyhound racing at the time.
As a teenager I became very interested in greyhound racing, he said.
This was due to my parents success, as well as the success of Zoom Top and her litter brothers and sisters.
Actually Zoom Top was my selection from the litter of pups my parents had bred. At the time of their whelping each member of our family had selected a pup of their choice.
I became hooked on the sport.
Within a short time Geoff and Robyn were training winners on the major city tracks and it took only two years to become leading trainers. In 1971 Geoff became the leading trainer in Sydney winning the trainers premiership.
Not only did Geoff and Robyn have plenty of winners, superstars quickly joined the kennel and Geoff took them to the top.
Woolley Wilson (Benjamin John-Top Sapphire) became one of those superstars, not just because he was owned by handicapped Gary Wilson one of the personalities of greyhound racing, but because he was such a great galloper.
He started 71 times for 35 wins and $40,896 in stakes winning the Vic Peters and twice being placed in the National Derby among other great races.
Gary had got Woolley Wilson from Allan Chauncy as a pup, said Geoff.
It is famous that Chauncy lamented hed never be able to sell the big woolley pup from the litter. When Gary Wilson turned up to Allans property to pick a pup from the litter, he declared that the first pup that came over to him would be his.
Chauncy seized upon his chance and gave the big woolley six-week old pup a good shove in Garys direction.
Gary and his father Allan took the pup home and reared him in a paddock not far from their St Marys home.
He was actually reared in a cow paddock with Benny McGrath, said Geoff. Woolley Wilson would eat cow droppings every day they took him to that paddock. Maybe thats why he was so healthy when he grew up. It cleaned him out totally.
Gary and his father turned up at Paul Cauchis trial track one Sunday morning and three trainers were lined up to fight over who would get the Benjamin John pup to train.
He was put up the straight and hardly chased at all, said Geoff. You can imagine none of those trainers wanted to touch him. I got a call a little while later and accepted him into the kennel.
Geoff took one look at Woolley Wilson and knew the dog knew nothing about his purpose in life.
He was like a sheep when I first saw him, said Geoff. He was very timid. Youd put your hand on him and hed squat and pee himself.
That was when Geoffs expertise can to the fore.
I put him in a paddock for a month and let him grow up a bit more, he said. Then for the next month Id take him every few days to a trial track to let him watch.
Id keep an eye on him while at those trials and he was getting keener and keener. Eventually after a couple of months we slipped him and he flew.
Woolley Wilson, according to Geoff, was the best sprinter ever. He brought him to Queensland for the Foundation Gift at the Gabba which he won by 11 lengths without seeing the track.
He also went to Melbourne and first-up ran a track record.
He could do anything.
Geoff and Robyn had learned their trade by watching the professional way Hec and Leah had prepared their dogs. They even improved on that at Bringelly and later on 25 acres at Luddenham.
We devoted our lives to greyhound racing, said Geoff.
Great greyhounds continued to arrive.
Benny McGrath (Benjamin John-Millie McGrath) was reared and owned by Ernie Wilson. He and Woolley Wilson grew up together galloping about that cow paddock in St Marys.
Geoff would take Benny McGrath to the finals of the Melbourne Cup, National Derby, St Leger and Vic Peters.
Top Saba (by Zoom Tops brother Tom Bomber-Spotted Sue) won the National Futurity and Sydney Cup and was a finalist in the National Sprint.
Top Em All, a sister to Zoom Top from a later litter, was a high class galloper and became a champion producer the dam of Qld Derby winner Ben Hamilton.
Truly Active won the Qld Futurity and was a finalist behind Acacia Park in the Coca-Cola Cup.
Top flight gallopers like Waverly and Early School followed.
The fastest dog I ever trained was Tivoli Fables, said Geoff.
He was by Tivoli Chief-Glitter Story and he was bought in the late 1970s for $10,000.
He was a short little dog but he could fly, said Geoff. Unfortunately he hurt his metacarpal and never got to show it.
He would sire star stayer Lease Of Life and Qld Derby winner Duration.
Success came so fast Geoff and Robyn expanded to Luddenham in 1978 where they set up their own 400m straight track.
We were probably the first to test all the food the dogs were getting, said Geoff. We also did regular testing of urine and droppings. We grew our own veges for the dogs, fed them only export beef and worked and raced them very hard.
Geoff has written a trainers training guide and put together a video as well but neither, tragically, has been picked up by the industry for use.
The Watt feeding routine was way ahead of its time.
In the morning we fed kibble or a biscuit, milk, calcium, vitamin E and lots of glucose, said Geoff.
We only ever used tank water for our dogs.
In the evening we fed a variety of different feeds according to what day of the week it was.
Every Sunday, each dog in the kennel was given a bread and milk dinner. It comprised of six slices of bread, one or two eggs, one to two cups of milk with glucose added, and one teaspoon of Epsom salts.
On Monday, the racing meat was grilled and a small amount of liver was added. Dogs got one to two cups of kibble depending on their size. Grated veges were fed, usually parsley, carrot, apple etc.
A cup of Vegemite water was added to the meal.
Tuesday saw the reintroduction of raw meat and kibble.
Wednesday was stew night and this was meat and vegetables, sometimes chicken was added, as was a teaspoon of milk of magnesia.
Thursday and Friday was the same as Tuesday while Saturday, after racing, a grill was given to the dogs again.
Before racing Geoff and Robyn would prepare a supplement which would be given about 2.30 on race day, or six hours before racing.
It consisted of a tablespoon of bran flakes, an egg yolk, a teaspoon of glucose and another of iron, and two ounces of beef. It was rolled up into a type of ball and given to the dogs racing that night.
OK, it sound much similar to many diets used today.
But what people didnt understand is that even though many copied this diet, they didnt have the foundation diet that went into most of our pups and young dogs, said Geoff.
It started a long, long time before they started racing.
If a dog does not have that foundation to fall back upon, it cannot back up like our dogs did, or like Zoom Top did.
Geoff says the PH level of a dog is so important to its well being. It must be between 6.5 and 7.5 and no lower, he said.
After racing, each Watt-trained dog was given a teaspoon of Citralka to clean the kidneys.
Our dogs could gallop up our 400 metre straight every second day, said Geoff. I believe you must work greyhounds uphill a rise of between 15 to 20 percent.
It gives not only hindquarter strength but forward strength as well. Galloping on a flat straight is no good.
But I dont believe a dog needs any more than between 300 and 350 metres at a time.
Geoff said he would work a dog up the straight up to two days before a race. Hec (Watt, his father) would run a day before the race and behind the lure.
Geoff only ever called dogs up a straight.
The straight must be steep and with an even steeper catching pen, he said. The even steeper catching pen will ensure dogs are not pulling up hard and doing themselves an injury. You dont need them, to overrun themselves.
Geoff is aware of the new breed of trainer who is in the industry for a short time and knows everything. Ive seen it for decades, he said.
Young trainers need guidance and the best guidance is an apprenticeship, someone to learn from. Youve got to have someone telling you, guiding you, someone who has already made the mistakes.
He says a healthy dog wants to run, wants to race.
A good diet and good work routine, he said.
Zoom Top would not have been as good with anyone else, he said. She was prepared for her training and racing routine from the moment she was born.
In 1990, Geoff and Robyn sold Luddenham and bought a huge van, almost semi-trailer like.
It was with the aim to have half a dozen dogs at the back of the van tripping throughout the country. Geoff and Robyn had equipped it with their own living quarters at the front.
The idea lasted for a year but Geoff and Robyn became disenchanted with the industry and eventually quit.
These days they live, still in the van, at Casino.
We bought the old indoor cricket centre at Casino and turned the van into our home, he said. The indoor cricket centre has now been turned into the work base for the building company he runs on the Northern Rivers.
Robyn does all the book work and Geoffs mum Leah has moved in late last year after Geoff has a major operation.
Watt-trained dogs broke the Wentworth Park track record three times.
Geoff was there every step of the way during the Zoom Top era. It was he, remember, who had picked her out as a pup.
Robyn and Geoff have two sons Greg, 45, and Danny 43.
They live at Casino with many great memories and some not so great.
But when anyone in greyhound racing ponders the name Watt, it will forever be associated with success most can only dream of.

She was incredible.

There would be massive utility in creating a central storage of greyhound info - physical and written - which is readily available to the public and which can be promoted.

The Zoom Top story is just one of thousands but very worthwhile. Your own interview with PAW is another.

It would be a wonderful extension of the function of a modernised GA (not the current one).

Core sources already exist - Haslett's Chasing Dreams, Munt's The Australian Greyhound, Hull's The Dogs that Made Australia, trade media, etc.

I see a central hard copy version of the Australian War Museum accompanied by digital versions in each state - all with interactive features.

It would cost a few million to launch which some may moan about. However, the cost of not doing it is the continued decline of the sport as we know it.

Go!

I have always thought there is a need for a greyhound racing museum but where to put it I don't know.
The fact the Watts got no response from officialdom in regards to the immortal Zoom Top's trophies and memorabilia is typical.

I totally agree ... the cost of NOT doing it!!!

DB

That's true and has strong possibilities as a secondary outlet. EG where the town has existing reasons to support the code (Chief Havoc statue, etc) it would be useful to create a desk with the odd bit of memorabilia plus online access to the central museum. It might be at the club, library or council.

But the prime objective should still be capital cities and their huge populations - more bang for the buck.

Also bear in mind that the digital content would then be routinely available to media who frequently get the story wrong or just don't bother.

The promotional possibilities are endless. They are also urgently needed in view of the current state of the industry.

1. A physical museum is essential.

2. The War Museum is online - with shop.

Not sure if it is ready for public viewing but will find out

Hi David

Given your recent experience with finding out who ran 2nd to Tickety Boo in the Grafton Carnival Maiden, another thing would be the full historical archiving of results nationwide including breeding of all participants, times, margins etc and where possible video's and/or pictures uploaded

It is so frustrating, as you know, looking up results for any race more than 15 years ago

The Thoroughbreds have archived all their results over the years

Our history is sketchy to say the least and difficult to find

It has been a real nightmare trying to get results put onto the site let alone past results. I believe there are people out there with those details, but getting the details logged onto Greyhound Data would be a nightmare. My computer skills do not extend to converting peoples' files to what is needed on Data.

DB

Photos, film, reprints, data, newspapers.

A day in the life of the trainer?

A raceday experience of the dog from home to track and back.

A visit to the vet.

Pups and mum from whelping through education, training, racing to retirement.

A day in the breeding establishment.

A mock-up of the 6,000 year development of the breed.

A mock-up of the development of mechanical hare racing.

The anatomical structure of the greyhound.

Building and maintaining a racetrack.

Forget trophies and the like - they are boring to the public. Display "doing" stuff and explain why.

Dr Harry could do voice-overs for some of this.

The possibilities are endless.

You and I know the story of Gallippoli - create the same for greyhounds.

Rod,

We already have - here.

Realistically, by requests to state authorities which will then take it to GA with a recommendation to get cracking.

2. Allocate, say, $50k to conduct a feasibility study - from someone independent of the state authorities. The job would include obtaining advice and assessments from existing museums and the like.

3. Build a business case for initial capital and ongoing funding, starting with a grant of $1m, with more to come.

4. Anyone crying poor should take their share out of current feature event prize money. Those shares would be proportional to each state's income. The target and expectation would be that the investment will return "dividends" over a 5 or 10 year period from the growth of the industry.

5. While a central physical site is fundamental, much of the action will be digital and therefore warrant mini-desks in each capital as well as at selected/willing clubs/tracks. (The GRV Dog Caf and GAP programs are other examples).

6. The entire program would be bolstered by (a) merging the stud book and form database and (b) then making that a special section of the overall program - some charges could be considered. (This should have been done years ago and warrants separate funding).

7. Necessarily, a modernisation of the purpose and operation of GA would take place in sympathy. That might require an abandonment of all the old state jealousies. However, it represents a lone chance of the industry getting out of the mire which is now suffocating it.