DESPITE only having a handful of greyhounds in work, Golden Square trainer Dallas Massina has won the inaugural Greyhound Racing Victoria provincial strike rate award.
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In an extremely competitive race, Massina, the daughter of former long-serving Bendigo Greyhound Racing Association president Noel Massina, finished ahead of prominent duo Kelvyn Greenough and Glenn Rounds.
The award was announced at Sunday night's virtual Victorian Greyhound Awards.
Massina prepared 28 winners from 65 starters over the 2020-21 season at an exceptional 43.08 per cent strike rate, to shade Greenough, who secured 23 winners from 54 runners at 42.59 per cent, with Rounds third with 43 winners from 105 starters at 40.95 per cent.
Making Massina's achievement even more significant is that her very small team are entirely homebred, with her standouts over the last year including Lalina (13 wins from 23 career starts), Bareki (11 from 18) and Jannila (10 from 16), littermates by Barcia Bale out of Nallak, who won the prestigious Bendigo Gold Rush Maiden in 2016.
Placing her greyhounds to advantage is obviously a strength of Massina's training regime, as Nallak also had an excellent strike rate of eight wins from 21 starts.
The Victorian provincial strike rate award acknowledges the trainer with the highest percentage of total winners compared to total starters at full provincial stake money races conducted in Victoria (minimum 52 starters).
Massina has continued her excellent form into the new season with a pair of wins from three starters in September.
Both have been achieved with Bareki, who won at Horsham on September 4 and backed-up with a victory at Geelong on September 17.
Meanwhile, Shima Shine, who won the $75,000 to the winner Pink Diamond Champion Sprinter Final at Bendigo in June this year, was named Victorian greyhound of the year.
The now retired Shima Shine, formerly trained by Andrea Dailly, exited racing with 37 wins from 64 starts for $738,268 in prizemoney and a swag of track records at Bendigo, Ballarat, Horsham and Warragul.
He also won the sprinter of the year title.
Bred and trained by Kel Greenough, Houdini Boy won the stayer of the year award.
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