The Friday-Saturday NGA Auction, which saw nearly $1.4 million in pup sales and another $115,000 in brood and stud dog sales (bringing the total to more than one-and-a-half million), brought a dramatic close to another successful NGA Fall Meet (Oct. 14-19) in Abilene, Ks.
Pups—195 in all—sold for $1,397,150, for an average of $7,164. Forty-seven brood lots (including one stud—Hi Noon Hero, for $25,000) sold for $115,950. Auction total was $1,513,100.
Once again, snow helped define this meet—but to a much lesser degree than it did last spring, when a total snow covering (except for the track) greeted meet attendees on Tuesday’s races in April.
This time, snow flurries were the backdrop to Friday’s racetrack finals—but a full wintry covering showed itself early in the afternoon when all the races had been completed.
Top sale in the auction was the $42,000 paid by a group led by Randy Finegan for Ken Biehle’s KB’s Hot Idea (Mustang Zapper-Hot Kisses). Hot Idea won his February/March main stake in 29.63—easily the fastest time of the entire meet and just a length off the track record. Joining Finegan in the purchase were Rich Armington, Marshall Gramm and Joe Ametrano.
The ongoing theme of the week was Women in Greyhound Racing, as a number of supporters provided funds to sponsor a stake by that name. An additional $500 was raised for a special purse to the female with the fastest time of the week (claimed by David Peck’s CTW Leona Brown, CTW Base Camp-CTW Broken Halo, who ran a 29.93 on Friday). Moreover, another $2,500 was raised by the supporters as a contribution on behalf of the NGA to breast cancer research.
The “women” theme seemed to touch on other aspects of the Fall Meet. Gina Strong served as the first woman paddock judge at a National Meet. The Wednesday night banquet was in honor of Karen Keelan; it was only the third time a woman was the banquet honoree, and the first time a woman track operator was so honored. Then on Friday, Julia Ward of Abilene became the first woman to be elected as president of the NGA.
Thursday night’s ceremonies at the greyhound museum witnessed the induction of Darby Henry, Bill Lee and Flying Penske into the Hall Of Fame in front of a huge crowd.
In fact, crowds for all events were large throughout the week. More than the usual number of representatives from racetracks journeyed to Abilene for the Meet, in part to take in Karen Keelan’s banquet and the Bill Lee induction. Friday night’s live auction crowd was especially large.
taken from the National Greyhound Association website.