Doongalla Rocket Evokes Precious Memories

DOONGALLA is a small town in Victoria that has special significance to Peter Onley and his family.

Pete's son Ash has been a successful dog man for the past couple of decades celebrating the "Soda" dogs like Soda Man and Soda Flash.

FIELDS AND FORM THE MEADOWS SATURDAY NIGHT

Back three years ago, Ash's grandfather Allan just happened to mention that his father, Cleaver, had trained greyhounds way back in the White City days in the 1950s and his best dog was named Doongalla.

"That's when the family decided to start using the Doongalla prefix for all the recently bred dogs," Ash said.

Among those is the highly promising Doongalla Rocket (Hooked On Scotch-Joe's Dolly) which runs in a semi-final of the VicBred Maiden series at The Meadows on Saturday night after winning his heat in 30.32.

"Joe's Dolly (the winner of 15 races) is dad's house pet," Ash added.

Peter Onley only got into greyhound racing in 2018 when he celebrated his 50^th birthday and Ash gave him a greyhound pup as a present.

"It raced as Pilot Pete because dad has his pilot's license," said Ash.

"He got to 100 starts and won about 10 of them."

Ash has taken a sabbatical from the family's floor covering business and is working with Correy and Samantha Grenfell and they train a number of the Doongalla dogs.

"Correy and Sam are wonderful to work with, and they have been friends for many years," Ash added.

Of Doongalla Rocket, Ash labels him the fastest he has bred and potentially the best.

"The VicBred Maiden series is really prestigious," he said.

"It is a race we would love to win."

Great granddad Cleaver would be rightfully proud.