Rapid Journey was such a great racedog during his career i thought i'd ask if anyone has a favourite performance of his or want to comment on him?
certainly one of my favourite greyhounds.

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Amazingly, he's now 32nd on the all time Australian prize money list.

He won six races in 1998 that are now run at group 1 level - had he won them in the 2019/20 season he'd have netted $1,060,000 from the finals of those races alone!

Genuine freak

amazing performance after being in all sorts of trouble still managed to beat some soon to become handy stud dogs.

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That is the best run I remember but the call of when he won the NSW Final of the Nations is one that sticks in my memory... I think it was PJ calling 'Rapid Journey brilliant, by 8 or 9 lengths. Spoken Joe 2nd November Miss 3rd'

its on youtube

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Rapid Journey (Amerigo Magic-Miss Courtney by Curryhill Brute) was bred by Kathleen Barker, he was raced and trained by Jane and John Carruthers.
Kathleen was Janes mum.
Rapid Journey was a home bred if ever there was one.
In all, Rapid Journey (Amerigo Magic-Miss Courtney) started 54 times for 33 wins and 11 placings for $530,995 in stakes.
We all know the story of Rapid Journeys wonderful career but briefly he won the Golden Easter Egg, Topgun, Melbourne Cup, Adelaide Cup, National Sprint and Perth Cup (now all Group 1s but the Topgun was Group 2 when Rapid Journey won it).
Win those six races today and you instantly bank $1.11 million.
Xylia Allen holds the record for stakes earnings today at $743,730.
The Rapid Journey story starts with Jane Carruthers parents Jack and Kathleen Barker.
Jack and Kathleen came from England where Jack was heavily involved in whippet racing.
When he came to Australia and found there was no whippet racing, he switched to greyhounds.
Jack loved a punt and was not frightened to let go on one at the horses.
He was also a breeding buff. He loved nothing better than watching the offspring of English stallions imported to Australia.
Jack and Kathleen bought Miss Courtney because she was by Irish sprinter Curryhill Brute and out of a bitch called Regina.
The reason Jack bought her was because she was by Curryhill Brute, said John Carruthers.
Miss Courtney won seven races and ran 20 placings her wins coming at Penrith, Moss Vale, Dapto, Gosford and Richmond. She never ran a place in five starts at Wentworth Park.
She was a very good race bitch, said John. I remember her winning a final at Penrith.
At the time, John and Jane raced a dog called Amerigo Magic (Amerigo Man-Clayburn Kate) they had got from the great Sydney trainer George Allen.
He always had wrist problems, said John. He won the Appin Cup which in those days was a very prestigious race.
I put him in a private trial at Bulli one day. The Oldfields great bitch November Sunset held the record at 27.25 at the time.
Amerigo Magic trialled 26.95. My brother Robert, a solicitor at Rosewood in Queensland, owned Amerigo Magic.
Such was that dogs ability that Jack Barker always said he would mate Miss Courtney to him when she finished racing.
But when she first came on season, Jack put her to Bjorn, said John.
The litter was legless.
But Jack died between that first litter in 1992 and the next time Miss Courtney came on season early in 1995.
Kathleen Barker, as her late husband always declared he would, put Miss Courtney to Amerigo Magic.
The pedigree design behind that Amerigo Magic-Miss Courtney mating was nothing more than that.
Kathleen whelped the litter and had them in her house back yard.
John and Jane helped out by taking half the litter.
We were living on a house block ourselves at Guildford, just around the corner from Kathleen, said John.
Wed take our pups in the car to an area nearby we called the pipeline.
Wed jump the fence with the pups and they would get about a 200 or 300 metre slip up alongside that pipeline.
Eventually the Carruthers would move to five acres at Castlereagh where they still live.
Those pups were about seven or eight months of age at the time and Bruce Carr at Londonderry finished off their rearing for us, said John.
One of those pups would be named Rapid Journey.
When he was young, he always had a lot of little problems including a crook wrist, said John. Which is why he didnt start racing until he was 22 months old.
John Carruthers has always been great mates with legend trainer Ray Minty.
I took Rapid Journey as a pup to the Greyhound Club for a 300 metre trial, said John. Ray was there and he helped me with the dog.
Id never been to the Greyhound Club track. It would be why so many people said Ray Minty trained Rapid Journey.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Rapid Journey, who had never seen the Greyhound Club track equalled the track record that had been bettered only a few weeks before.
You must remember, in those days Jane and I were battling trainers, admitted John. We had hardly ever raced a dog at Wentworth Park.
For us, greyhound racing was setting one up at the country for a bet.
Thats what they did with Rapid Journey. They took him to Taree for the heats of a rich maiden series.
It was worth $2500 to the winner. I borrowed $1000 from my sister-in-law Jeanette Brown to back him, said John.
(Taree legend) Kevin Johnson had one in the race he thought was a special and they put plenty on his dog.
Id run Rapid Journeys litter brother in an earlier Maiden heat and got 7-1 but he was beaten.
I had $800 for Rapid Journey and averaged 5-2 for the money after 7-2 was bet.
He bolted in.
But in the final, off the red box, he missed the start by 10 lengths, was checked at the first turn when storming up, and then finished fourth.
Rapid Journey went to Orange next for a post to post slip.
Theres a clocker at Orange who is now famous, said John. He is best known as Choco but Ive never found out his real name.
He came to me after Rapid Journeys post to post trial and said the dog would have smashed the track record.
It wasnt long after that Rapid Journey really did learn to gallop.
The world watched in awe as he swept through just about every feature race in 1998.
The Hall of Fame would beckon.
Jack Barker, the whippet man from England, had designed a pedigree fit for royalty but then got cold feet.
It was left to his widow Kathleen to take the bold step and put Miss Courtney to Amerigo Magic.
Kathleen died just a few days before Rapid Journey won his first Group 1, the Adelaide Cup.
That win was really special for us, said John. You must remember we had only ever had 300 yard dogs racing around the bush before Rapid Journey came along.

But I hark back to Michael Floyd's about prize money.

It would be great if someone (probably GRV) established a program to annually up date the top money winners' figures using the CPI or some other inflation rate. We would then be talking about apples and apples, not a fruit salad.

I imagine Rapid Journey would come out on top by some margin, even though some of the big clubs have distorted the actual prize money over the years by trying to outdo each other.

Once done, it would take only a minute or two to update it every year.