Greyhound racing news from around the NSW regions, May 4

He has already twice won the world's richest event the Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase (MDC), now trainer Peter Lagogiane has set his sights on another of the Greyhound Racing NSW new feature events.

Lagogiane is now chasing the world's richest shortcourse feature, The Ladbrokes Thunderbolt which will be decided on June 22 at Grafton.

On April 29 at Richmond, Lagogiane sent his speedy sprinter Sicario Beast around the Richmond 320m journey, and the rising star not only won, but broke the track record. The stunning 17.83s performance clipped 0.02s off the previous record.

Sicario Beast was coming off three successive wins over the 388m at Gosford and while he was having his first start over the 320m at Richmond, the dog had equalled the track record in a trial a week earlier.

Immediately following the success Lagogiane declared The Thunderbolt with its final run over the 350m at Grafton, was the main aim.

Heats of The Thunderbolt will be held at Wagga, Bulli, Gosford, Taree, Goulburn, Richmond, Dubbo and Grafton from May 31 to June 9 with semi-finals at Grafton on June 16 then the final on June 22.

Sicario Beast has now won 14 of his 18 starts either at Richmond, Gosford or up the Richmond Straight.

Sicario Beast is the son of Beast Unleashed and Oscar's Alibi. The sire was trained by Lagogiane and won 10 of 15 starts for him before heading to stud, including the Group 2 Gosford Gold Cup and the Group 2 Launching Pad at Sandown.

A Rees Classic

There was bad news but good fortune for trainer Tom Rees in the Group 2 Ladbrokes Nowra Puppy Classic Final on April 27.

Rees was forced to scratch pre-post favourite, his Group1 National Derby winner History's Coming, due to a minor injury, but the dog's sister Hurricane Reign did start and took out the $40,000 feature leading throughout.

Hurricane Reign was runner-up in the Group 1 National Futurity on the same night History's Coming won the Derby back in January.

Rees revealed that History's Coming had "a minor soft tissue injury on a back leg" that had swollen up after the heats. With a big campaign planned up north over Winter including the Brisbane Cup, he erred on the side of caution and withdrew the dog. But disappointment turned to joy when Hurricane Reign led throughout in 29.47s to win the $40,000 feature.

Rees will now consider also taking Hurricane Reign to Queensland for their carnival.

Puppy Auction

It is now less than a month until the inaugural GRNSW Puppy Auction. It will be held on May 26 at Richmond Raceway with more than 100 lots in the catalogue.

The Auction Race Series, exclusive to greyhounds auctioned at the GRNSW Puppy Auction, will be held in October-November 2025 and carry in excess of $200,000 in total prizemoney, with the winner collecting $150,000.

The E-Catalogue for the auction can be found online at thedogs.com.au.

Tom's special trip

Such was the respect for the late Northern Rivers vet Jack Sommerville, that Queensland trainer Tom Tzouvelis was not going to miss being at Grafton for the race named in Jack's honour on April 20.

Tom drove nine hours home from Rockhampton, slept for three hours then headed to Grafton another three and half hours away for the inaugural running of the Jack Sommerville Northern Rivers Cup.

"If it wasn't Jack's race and Carol (Jack's wife) and the family weren't going to be there, I wouldn't have gone to Grafton and I would have sent one of the staff," he said.

"But it was and I wanted to make sure I caught up with everyone, whether we won or lost wasn't the point, I just wanted to make sure I caught up with them and showed Jack the respect he deserved, and saw Carol and spent time with her, and that's why I made such an effort to get there."

The trip was also worthwhile with Tom's dog Valhalla taking out the Cup.

Off to Honkers

The Greyhound Welfare & Integrity Commission's chief steward Troy Vassallo has announced he will be leaving the industry and heading overseas to take up a stipendiary steward role with the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Vassallo, who worked as a steward for Racing NSW before switching codes, has been the chief steward in NSW since May 2023.

Dapto honour

The Dapto Greyhound Club was very close to the heart of rugby league great Terry Hill who put the club on the map of a different audience with his regular live crosses to the track on a Thursday night during the Channel 9 Footy Show in the 1990s.

Even as recently as last year Terry made the effort to be at Dapto for the launch of the Ladbrokes Megastar and throw his support and profile behind the club and the race.

On Thursday night, May 2, the club recognised Terry naming a race in his honour: In Loving Memory of Terry Hill.

This article was produced as part of an ACM partnership with Greyhound Racing NSW.