CAPTION: Trainer Tony Zammit (left) and owner Michael Ivers after their former top stayer Trojan Tears was recently inducted into the Racing Queensland Hall of Fame. (Photo: Box 1 Photography)
By PAUL DOLAN
A GREYHOUND who is rare, perhaps unique, is the latest inductee into the Racing Queensland Hall of Fame.
The Michael and Helen Ivers-owned and Tony Zammit-trained Trojan Tears takes a worthy position on the honour roll. What makes Trojan Tears rather special is that she was the Greyhound of the Year in 1993 for both her home state of Queensland and for New South Wales.
The Trojan Tears story started when the Ivers purchased two bitches by New Tears out of Tears Girl from Zammit, and reared them at their Kurwongbah (north Brisbane) property. One bitch was Tango Tears, a more than handy type but injury prone. The other bitch was history-maker Trojan Tears.
It’s a bit quirky that Trojan Tears didn’t win Queensland’s feature staying race, the Albion Park Gold Cup, in 1993. She finished second, beaten one and a half lengths by New South Wales raider Pilgrim’s Star. Trojan Tears won the Winter Chase and Interstate Challenge staying features at Albion Park that year.
In New South Wales, she didn’t win that state’s premier staying race either, the Group One Association Cup. She wasn’t in it. But victories in the Summer Cup and Sydney Cup, along with a Wentworth Park 720 metres record run, put her up there among the best performers of that state for the same year.
In the 1993 Sydney Cup, from box eight, Trojan Tears lowered the colours of another star stayer, Raven Kelly, who was the $1.40 favourite from box one. In the Summer Cup of that year, Trojan Tears again encountered Raven Kelly. It was a case of Trojan Tears winning from box six. The 33-1 longshots Mr. Cartwright and Torpedo filled the placings with Raven Kelly finishing sixth.
Would you believe that in 1994 Trojan Tears won the Albion Park Gold Cup? Guess who was in the field. Yep. Raven Kelly who finished fifth as the $2.50 favourite. Raven Kelly won the Summer Cup of 1994, a race which didn’t include Trojan Tears.
Overall, Trojan Tears won 27 of her 57 starts. In 1993 she had 10 wins in Queensland and six in New South Wales.
Michael Ivers, now New South Wales based on the central coast, attended the recent Queensland awards night.
“I’m 75 now and still enjoying life and greyhound racing. And very proud of this Hall of Fame induction for our great bitch,” he said.
The best progeny that Trojan Tears produced was clearly Kobble Creek, the 1999 National Distance Championship winner. Kobble Creek was by Gun Law Osti and won that Championship final by the staggering margin of 11-3/4 lengths. Other notables that Trojan Tears produced included Long Shadow, Emma’s Angel and Tearaway Tears.
Tony Zammit well remembers the night Trojan Tears won the NSW Greyhound of the Year.
“The feedback at the function was that we were a worthy finalist,” he said. “People were friendly but didn’t really expect us to win. When the announcement was made, you could have heard a pin drop. Here was a Queenslander taking out the NSW award.”
When champion racehorse Makybe Diva won her third Melbourne Cup in 2005, trainer Lee Freedman said: “Go and find the smallest child on this course and that will be the only example of a person who will live long enough to see that again.”
Michael Ivers or Tony Zammit could have said similar words back in 1993. Trojan Tears is the only greyhound to have won the Queensland and New South Wales Greyhound of the Year titles. There were no domicility rules or restrictions back then. Things are different now with the rules, making it virtually impossible for any greyhound to win GOTY outside of the state where it is trained.
Another quote by a horseracing participant, the great Victoian racecaller Bill Collins, comes to mind. In 1986 Collins declared that the Cox Plate winner Bonecrusher had raced into immortality. That’s Trojan Tears too.
