Fahey & Wyllie dominate feature races
Peter Fenemor • October 6th, 2025 12:26 PM • 4 min read
Six feature races, held at two venues last Thursday, resulted in a hugely successful day of racing for the potent Dave Fahey and Katie Wyllie kennels.
The Canterbury-based training operation won two of the feature races at both the Cambridge and Addington Raceways.
Two Group 1 winners from last season started the winning roll at Cambridge.
First up it was Everest Sky who proved too swift for his rivals when he dashed to his strong 21.19 win in the $10,000 Cannonball Sprint final over 375m, securing the victory by a 3.25 length margin.
“Everest Sky is a marvelous sprinter, who doesn’t mind what track he’s racing on. He loves them all. I was confident of him winning once he took the race lead,” stated Dave Fahey.
Displaying electrifying pace from the 457m traps in the $20,000 Jack Hannan Memorial Cup final was the current NZ Bred Greyhound of the Year, Jerry Cola.
He effectively took away the winning claims held by his rivals when delivering his sharp 5.70 first sectional with him cruising to his compelling four-length 25.53 win.
“Jerry loves the place up there, although I did get a bit worried when it rained there. He had been up in weight, but we have now got that under control.
“We will freshen him now, getting him ready for the Galaxy Sprint,” advised Fahey about the son of Aussie Infrared and the NZ Dam of the Year, Isavana who has now won 33 of his 46 races.
Two $10,000 295m sprint feature finals at Addington fell victim to the Fahey/Wyllie onslaught later in the evening.
Dingo Night, who is a litter brother to the Dave and Jean Fahey bred and owned Everest Sky and Jerry Cola, was his usual professional self when he scampered to his 16.67 win in The Homekill Guys Ltd Sprint Feature, leading home kennelmate Opawa Mocha by 1.25 lengths.
“Yes, he’s a real professional sprinter, who simply loves racing at Addington. He’ll stay racing at Addington as 295m is the top end of his range.
“We gave him an extra gallop during the week, which helped him to run through the line stronger, running a personal best time,” said Fahey about the winner of 27 of his 46 races.
Opawa April is a sharp Addington 295m sprinter and she demonstrated her class when she sprinted her way to comfortable 16.82 victory in the Active Electrical Christchurch Dash.
It was the 13th win from 20 races for the Opawa Racing owned and bred sprinter.
“She loves the wide draws, and she has developed into a classy sprinter. She can be slightly slow early; however, she has great second phase acceleration.
“We will keep her ticking over, heading towards the Galaxy Sprint,” confirmed Fahey.
Fahey and Wyllie lined up 16 greyhounds at both venues last Thursday, finishing with seven winners and eight minor placegetters which saw then improving their Trainers Strike Rate up to an impressive 0.5703 UDR figure.
The other two $20,000 feature races held last Thursday was headlined by the action-packed Shandell Distance final over 747m at Cambridge.
The back-to-back NZ Stayer of the Year, Chief Dribble had to call on all of his powerful staying reserves to claim his outstanding victory.
The Matt Roberts and Jack Johnson conditioned stayer bombed the race start, settling back in the field.
Going down the back straight Chief Dribble was giving away around eight lengths to the freewheeling Fahey and Wyllie prepared stayer Opawa Shirley.
Turning in for the run home he was still a decent margin behind the pacemaker; however Chief Dribble flicked on his turbo chargers, resulting in him gunning down Opawa Shirley by a neck, clocking 43.74 seconds.
“Yes, it sure was a massive run by Chief Dribble. It was just as well that the race wasn’t any shorter.
“I thought early on when he settled back that he could be in a bit of trouble. I saw him travelling good down the back straight and turning for home I thought third would be a good result.
“Then Chief Dribble unwound, showing what a fantastic stayer he is. It was very satisfying to see him win like that,” an excited Johnson said.
The win took Chief Dribble’s 75 race career stake earnings up to $253,122, the result of 36 wins and 19 minor placings for his owner Mandy Haines.
The Craig Roberts mentored Xisco Bale won two Group 1 races last season and he has started the new season in style when winning Thursday’s $20,000 Springston Hotel final over 525m at Addington.
Breaking away quickly from the eight-trap saw Xisco Bale tracking the pacemaker down the back straight, from where he asserted his authority to cut clear to nail his 30.45 win.
Race favourite and kennelmate Paw Bradley endured a traffic impeded racing passage into the first turn. He underlined his strength when recovering to rocket home for his three-quarter length second.
“Yes, the race panned out exactly how I thought it would with Xisco Bale powering up when going into the first turn.
“I initially thought that Paw Bradley was going to be okay around the first turn, then he got completely flattened. I thought he was massive in getting up for second. That dog doesn’t get any luck from those inside draws.
“You can’t take anything away from Xisco Bale though. It was another tradesman race by him. Once he was handy going down the back, I thought then that he could win the race,’ advised Roberts.
