Lion’s Den & Big Time Lena win Northern awards
Peter Fenemor • September 16th, 2025 12:01 PM • 4 min read
The two northern greyhound clubs recently announced their respective 2024/25 Greyhounds of the Year (GOTY).
Lion’s Den was awarded the Waikato GRC title, while Big Time Lena was named as the Auckland GRC GOTY.
It was a standout season for both sprinters who were also awarded the Waikato and Auckland Sprinter of the Year titles.
Lion’s Den, who is prepared by the Drury based sisters Lisa and Tracey Craik, proved to be a season long potent force over the Cambridge 375m sprint.
The season highlight at Cambridge for Lion’s Den came in the Angus Wright Memorial where he proved too strong when dashing to his 21.06 375m Group 2 victory.
Lion’s Den, who is a son of My Redeemer and Danish Delight, contested 28 375m Cambridge 375m sprints, winning 14 and placing in another eight races.
The Katcha Jordana owned sprinter was also a competitive sprinter at Manukau winning three 318m sprints (six placings), while also finishing second in the Group 1 Railway Sprint final.
It was a successful season at the Cambridge Raceway for the Te Awamutu based trainers Wayne and Tracey Steele who prepared the winner of 76 races.
The leading Strike Rate trainer at Cambridge was the Putaruru conditioner Sam Lozell who completed the season with a UDR score of 0.3930. Lozell was also recognized as the leading Waikato owner being represented by 17 race winners.
Other Waikato GOTY category winners included: Stayer - Johnny Football (Lisa Cole), Middle Distance – Opawa Thunder (Glynnis Farrell), NZ Bred – Lion’s Den (Katcha Jordana syn), Dam – Danish Delight (Katcha Jordana syn) & Romantic Dancer (Ian O’Neil), Sire – Thrilling Boris – Gary Harding.
The Peter Heterick mentored Big Time Lena was a model of consistency throughout the season at the Manukau Stadium when delivering her 318m sprints, winning on 13 occasions.
The Stacy McCarthy owned daughter of Aston Kimetto and Bigtime Vanessa placed in another 11 of her 31 318m sprints during a season where she raced from the Maiden grade through to being a highly competitive open class sprinter.
Her biggest Manukau wins came in the feature Silver Bracelet Trophy and the Bright Star Sprint. The Silver Bracelet win was quite memorable when trainer Heterick excitedly “bombed” the oncourse Mark Rosanowski and Phillipa Morris hosted Trackside coverage.
It was the Craik sisters who were presented with the Auckland Trainer of the Year award, having mentored an impressive 94 winners at the Manukau track.
They also struck gold in the Trainers Strike Rate, completing the season at the Auckland headquarters with a tidy 0.4063 UDR score.
Other Auckland GOTY category winners were: Stayer – Opawa Corban (Jack Johnson), Middle Distance – Opawa Issac (Glennis Farrell), NZ Bred & Veteran – Big Time Lockey (Ron & Nyomi O’Regan)
And this Saturday GRNZ will host the 2024/25 New Zealand Greyhound of the Year awards evening in Wellington.
It was an especially even New Zealand 2024/25 racing season, where unlike recent seasons, there wasn’t a standout greyhound stamping its paws over its rivals, with the Group race wins being evenly shared around.
That all adds up to an intriguing evening of awards presentations with the various racing categories being keenly contested as is the naming of the overall GOTY with there being intense interest in just who will receive the greyhound code’s ultimate accolade.
