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Fair Dinkum Whippet Racing At Tooradin


Kirislin
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I used to race my whippets at Tooradin, the home of the Victorian Whippet Racing Association. I raced my girls there for 6 years, from 1999-2005. They are a proper racing club, with rules similar to greyhound racing but it's amateur, no betting and the whippets are usually pets first and foremost.

Whippets are becoming an increasingly popular breed but I dont think many know about this club.

I thought I'd go down and take some pics to get the word out a bit more about them. They've been going for almost 40 years so they're pretty good at what they do.

Whippets are first taught to chase the lure.

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some dont catch on straight away

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Not this time

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On their second attempt they started to get the idea though. These cuties were actually running in front of the lure. I feel like I can just about hear them giggling, they were very cute.

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More to come

Edited by Kirislin
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They encourage them to chase by letting them catch the lure and "bite on", no live animals are used! That lure is even made of synthetic material, I suspect it was someones jumper, I saw a label on it.

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Even Feather who hasn't been there for 6years remembered what it was all about. This was part of her birthday present, she's 9 today.

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Then comes box training. The jump!

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Once they're jumping well and running the full circuit they are graded and put in to races with whippets of similar ability. And then........................

Edited by Kirislin
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Stans mum, they LOVE it! Feather hasn't been for 6 years but as soon as I turned up the driveway she sat up. When I put her on the lead and started towards the track she started screaming like a banshee.

You can see more pics here

Edited by Kirislin
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Happy Birthday georgous Feather.I know what you mean about the excitement.I used to take Stan to the straight track at Gosford dog trackwith other people and their rescue greys.As soon as we drove in there he knew where he was going and would go mental when he got out of the car.The look on Feathers face is priceless certainly enjoying that part of her pressie.The last dog in the photos is beautiful,love the eyes.Great shots.

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Great pics. Is it wrong to laugh at them running in front of the lure? :laugh:

No it's not.I remember watching a greyhound race(as a barmaid you see lots of races at work)and the lure broke down before it got to the boxes but the dogs still jumped.About a hundred metres up the track the leading dog realised it was chasing nothing and then it dawned on them all so they just started jumping on each other playing,it was hysterical :laugh:

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