Caption: Respected Qld trainer Tony Zammit

By Pat McLeod

One of Australia’s most experienced, successful and respected greyhound trainers, Tony Zammit, has labelled the current Brisbane Winter Carnival ‘Australia’s best’.

With the highpoint of the carnival still to come, group one night on Friday July 7 at Albion Park, Zammit believes enough evidence is already in to make the ‘best ever’ claim.

“I would say this is our (Queensland’s) best carnival ever. In fact this carnival would outdo anything that we have had in Australia,” the Yatala, south of Brisbane, based trainer said.  

The veteran mentor and Australian Greyhound Hall of Famer said there were several reasons why this carnival had already set the benchmark.

“For starters, the prizemoney ($3.3million across the carnival) has meant that at the very least we are comparable with the rest of the States and their carnivals,” he said.

“What the prizemoney has done is attract almost all of the best dogs from right across the country.

“I have seen a lot of carnivals over the years, but I have never experienced one with the depth of talent that is we have seen through this carnival.

“In past years some visitors would come from Sydney or Melbourne. Occasionally maybe from Adelaide or Perth.

“This carnival has attracted so many dogs from almost all states of Australia. It is really something for Queensland to be proud of.”

Zammit said Racing Queensland and the Brisbane club have also done an amazing scheduling job through the entire carnival.

“This is a carnival that goes for about six weeks. It is hard to keep the momentum going for that amount of time. But the organisers of this carnival have achieved that.

“The variety of features from the start have been amazing and offered a variety of distances and classes. The momentum has just continued to build.

“A masterstroke was having a condition of the million-dollar race that you had to have had a start on the track.

“That not only ensured quality in earlier races, but also gave punters a chance to have a look at these top southern dogs on the track.”