Cole & the Faheys take out national Trainers titles
Peter Fenemor • August 22nd, 2025 11:56 AM • 3 min read
The Lisa Cole training juggernaut relentlessly rolled on throughout the 2024/25 racing season as seen by the impressive 772 winners mentored from the Palmerston North based kennels.
And more of the same can be expected this season with the Cole family racing operation having already prepared the winners of 40 races three weeks into the new season.
Husband Brendon controls the day-to-day kennel requirements, and he is ably assisted by daughter Georgia. Sons Max, Monty and Sam all pitched in. Another daughter Ella was an integral part of the team prior to her mid-season move to Australia.
The majority of the greyhounds racing were bred, reared, broken in and are trained on the Cole property.
Cole applied the finishing touches to the winners of six Group 1 races, along with three Group 2 winners. Adding to the feature race successes were eight winners of Recognized races.
The kennels lined up 165 greyhounds who contested 3,964 races. The 772 winners, along with 1,250 minor placegetters earnt $3,118,135 in stakes.
The racing team saw Cole finishing with a 0.3359 UDR figure, which was very respectable considering the frequent occasions Cole trained greyhounds raced against each other.
“Yes, it was another really good season for us,” advised Brendon. “The most pleasing aspect were the number of Group race winners that we bred.
“Winning Group races is the ultimate result for any trainer and to win nine of those races is extremely satisfying.”
On the racing front it was the stayer Johnny Football with 26 wins who won the most races for Cole, while also winning $136,263 in stakes, the highest amount won by any greyhound during the season.
Other leading kennel contributors were Space Conspiracy (18 wins), the evergreen chaser Blazin’ Master (16), while Big Time London and Big Time Proof both won 15 races.
He’s All Go, Fear To Tread, More Magic, Johnny Football, Big Time Zip and Boom Dynamite were the Cole mentored Group 1 winners.
“We also acknowledge the help we received from so many industry people. Obviously, with large numbers racing at meetings, we are reliant on outside help on race days,” added Cole.
Titanic Strike Rate battle
The Trainer’s Strike Rate title race was decided on the very last day of the 2024/25 racing season.
Leading conditioners Dave and Jean Fahey had set the Strike Rate benchmark when they reached December 31 with their impressive 0.4897 UDR total. The couple prepared 148 winners during the five months they trained together.
It was on 1 January when the Dave Fahey and Katie Wyllie training-partnership commenced and they wasted no time in putting together 190 winners during the remaining seven months of the season.
During that time the Strike Rate table bounced around between the two training groups, regularly swapping places on top of the table.
Going into the final 31 July Addington meeting Fahey and Wyllie held a very slim advantage, however a couple of misses saw the leaderboard flipping around again with the Faheys coming out on top with their 0.4897 UDR score as opposed to the Fahey/Wyllie combination finishing on an also respectful 0.4883 rating.
Both Lisa Cole along with Dave and Jean Fahey will be acknowledged for their national training performances during the Greyhound Racing NZ annual awards evening in Wellington on 20 September.
