One Hot Bandit named 2024/25 Canterbury Greyhound of the Year
Peter Fenemor • August 7th, 2025 10:08 AM • 4 min read
Another successful season for the Christchurch GRC was celebrated by the Garden City club with the clubs annual 2024/25 Canterbury Greyhound of the Year awards function last Saturday evening.
The potent greyhound One Hot Bandit was deservedly announced as the 2024/25 Canterbury Greyhound of the Year.
One Hot Bandit proved to be unbeatable on the Addington track, winning all 15 of the 525m races he contested at the venue during the season.
Under the tuition of Dave and Jean Fahey he was prepared to win New Zealand’s richest greyhound race, the $100,000 Springston Hotel New Zealand Cup.
Since January 1 One Hot Bandit was mentored by the Dave Fahey and Katie Wyllie training partnership and he continued along his strong winning ways.
The Punters HQ and Emma Potts owned One Hot Bandit was also named as the Canterbury Middle Distance Greyhound of the Year.
The same set of trainers also guided Opawa Marsh to the Canterbury Sprinter of the Year title, which was an extremely competitive category.
Opawa Marsh won the Group 1 Galaxy Sprint final, and he prevailed in 54% of his sprints, while placing in 84% of them for his owning Opawa Racing team.
The Canterbury Stayer of the Year title was awarded to the Matt Roberts conditioned Chief Dribble who raced over the 732m distance on eight occasions, winning seven of those and finishing second in the other race.
The Mandy Haines owned stayer won both editions of the Group 2 Ray Adcock Memorial Distance held during the season, plus he was also the victor in the Group 1 New Zealand Stayers Cup which was raced during the New Zealand Cup meeting.
The Canterbury Dam of the Year award was won by the prolific producing Dave and Jean Fahey owned Isavana, whose progeny was led by the outstanding greyhounds such as Jerry Cola, Boldly Go, Everest Sky and Dingo Night.
The Canterbury Sire of the Year, which is awarded to a New Zealand based sire, was Winsome Opawa. The Opawa Racing owned and bred sire has dominated the locally based sires for numerous years. His leading Addington contributors during the season included Opawa Archer, Opawa Katrina, Opawa Jackson and Sweet Houdini.
In other awards, Johnathon McInerney was acknowledged as the leading Addington trainer, conditioning the winners of 385 races at the venue.
The Group 1 winning handler Leaha Washington was voted by Christchurch GRC club members as the Canterbury Youth Award winner, an award that proved very popular.
As part of her award Leaha receives a trip to the Australian Nationals finals evening, which will be raced at the mega new The Q complex in Brisbane late August.
It was another massively successful season for the Christchurch club as the Secretary/Manager Sarah Clausen informs.
“Yes, it was an interesting season, with the last half of it being rather rough for our Licence Persons (LPs).
“We started the season with our track renovations and during it we introduced the Safe Chase Lure, then added the double arms to the lure carriage.
“Our track staff were fantastic and were great in maintaining a consistent safe track to race on.
“The racing was definitely of a high standard throughout the season. For example, our judging panel had a very difficult job to decide our Sprinter of the Year winner, such was the high-quality sprinters who raced at Addington.
“We introduced members and LPs nights at the track, plus we also held social nights at a number of our sponsors venues to boost morale.”
Today’s Addington meeting sees the introduction of a new racing distance over 681m, the Congrats CHCH Stayer Of The Year Chief Dribble Distance (M9 R1).
Initially racing over the 681m trip will have a maximum field size of six runners, with today’s race being a quality field of five proven stayers.
Chief Dribble ($1.55 & $1.01 – TAB Fixed) headlines the field for the newly formed Matt Roberts and Jack Johnson training partnership. They also have the stylish recent Manawatu 660m winner Adobe Vidal ($3.20 & $1.06) engaged.
The ageless Bob Pringle trained stayer Grande Vue Ace ($12 & $1.55) has been kept up to the mark with her recent 525m ‘training runs’. She can be expected to be sighted finishing strongly along the rail.
Garry Cleeve has his proven stayer Little Dodo ($5.50 & $1.16) lining up along with Know Valour ($51 & $2.80).
“It’s great to see 681m racing returning (previously 645m). We have been trialling over the distance and today’s race is a good starting point prior to next week’s feature 681m race we have. The distance provides trainers with a variety of options,” explained Clausen.
And next Thursday’s Addington meeting promises to a blockbuster with numerous feature races over all four race distances scheduled.
