By David Brasch

LEADING owner Steve Williams had a property down Cessnock way where he would rear pups.

His drive from his Hervey Bay home would branch out via Allora and the trip would pass an old homestead called ‘Glen Gallon’.

\”Every time I drove past that homestead, I thought ‘what a silly name’,\” said Steve. \”But, with every one of those trips, the name started to grow on me. I decided to name a dog Glen Gallon.\”

The great Glen Gallon (Flying Stanley-Incoherent by Bombastic Shiraz) had to be humanely put down early in November when cancer hit him in a hind leg.

It ended a ride Williams and the dog\’s trainer Tony Brett savour today.

And, what a ride it was.

\”When the dog started racing and going so well,\” said Williams. \”Someone sent me a whole host of paper clippings showing the very first greyhound race meeting, a live hare coursing event, was held at the Glen Gallon homestead at Allora.\”

It was fitting a dog named after such a fitting start to the industry in Queensland would develop into a superstar.

Brett rates Glen Gallon one of the two best greyhounds he has trained, the other being Hall of Famer Bogie Leigh.

Glen Gallon raced 71 times for 37 wins and 15 placings earning $619,000. He made a remarkable 16 Group 1 finals, winning three and finishing second four times.

\”When he retired, he was the third highest stakes earner of all time in Australia,\” said Brett. \”He ran second beaten a head in the Melbourne Cup and a few weeks later was second beaten a length in the Brisbane Cup.

\”With a little bit more luck, he could have been the first dog to $1 million in earnings,\” said Brett.

Brett\’s family were devastated by the loss.

\”It was a very, very sad day for us all to have to put Mac down,\” he said. \”At one time it seemed like I spent more time tripping about Australia with him to big races than I did at home with my family,\” he joked.

To honour Glen Gallon\’s legacy for the Brett family, the dog was cremated and his ashes sprinkled over the family\’s straight training track.

\”I will admit to shedding a few tears when Tony rang me,\” said Steve Williams. \”And I knocked the top off a couple of bourbons in his honour.

\”I\’ll never forget him. He was a ripper.

\”He\’s the best I\’ve had,\” he said. \”Not the fastest, because Aliwishus Jones holds that honour, but easily the best.

Steve said it was appropriate his greatest race dog, Glen Gallon, died a day before Remembrance Day. \”That way, we will never forget this dog,\” said Steve.

At stud, Glen Gallon produced a smattering of quality dogs like Clock\’s Ticking (19 wins, $94,000), Macnivek (13 wins, $72,000), Arden Street (14 wins, $70,000), Natahli Deedee (20 wins, $63,000), John\’s Last (25 wins, $60,000) and Megalodon (18 wins, $59,000).

The latter bitch, Megalodon, has since become the dam of Flying Ricciardo (G2 Black Top, Gold Muzzle Auction, finalist Million Dollar Chase).

Tony Brett said the cancer came quickly for Glen Gallon.

\”He always spent his day hanging about the racing kennels,\” said Tony. \”He was as fit as a fiddle up until mid-September. That\’s when he started to limp on a back leg.

\”It stayed with him and a check over by Greg Sternberg found he had cancer.

\”Greg said he would go quickly, but he hung on for about eight weeks. He got really tired in the final few days and it was time.\”

As Steve Williams said: \”He was a ripper\”.