Miss Envy Crowned WA Greyhound Of The Year

MISS Envy has been named the 2024 WA Greyhound of the Year at the annual awards ceremony on Sunday.

The classy red brindle female from the kennels of Krystal and Steve Shinners was honoured for the title ahead of fellow contenders Sunset Frazier and Uncle Tommy.

Miss Envy racked up 15 wins and six placings from 22 starts and collected $380,427 in prizemoney during 2024.

Her major victories were in The Westchase, WA Sprint Championship, Group 1 National Sprint Championship, Million Dollar Chase Consolation as well as the Group 2 Laurels and she also placed in the Group 2 WA Oaks and Group 1 Melbourne Cup.

Miss Envy's gritty effort to hold out Smooth Plane and claim the National Sprint title at Angle Park was the obvious highlight of her year.

"I thought our state final was one the hardest to win, we had literarily four or five hot dogs in that field (but then) to do what she did against the best dogs in Australia (in the Nationals) was amazing," Steve Shinners reflected. 

"It was pretty surreal and it was a massive thrill."

Miss Envy has been sidelined since the start of the year but Shinners indicated that the star chaser would be back in action in time for next month's Perth Cup series. 

"She's had a toe injury which has set her back," he said. 

"We've got a bit of a limited preparation leading up the Cup but she should make the Perth Cup heats and fingers crossed she does her best."   

The other award winners were David Hobby for Trainer of Year, Jade McPherson the Young Achiever of the Year, John Cole was recognised for his lengthy career in greyhounds with the Gerry O'Keefe Award and the Crudeli Family took out the Kerry Vernon Award for Excellence in Greyhound Welfare.

The night also saw the induction of wife and husband combination Christine and Dave Robartson, as well as superstar chaser Tommy Shelby, into the WA Racing Hall Of Fame.

The Robartsons have had a long and storied association with greyhound racing as owners, trainers and breeders.  

Their involvement in the sport commenced when they were part of the chasing community that helped establish the Mandurah racetrack and they managed the kiosk when the venue opened in January in 1979.  

On the track the Robartsons have had many good dogs including Wit's End, the 1995 WA Greyhound of the Year, which they trained on behalf of their good friends Lisa and Nick Minutillo.

A move to Queensland coincided with a golden era for the Robartsons.

During their time in the sunshine state they raced champion racedog and dual Perth Cup winner High Earner as well as other luminaries such as El Galo and Miss Hot Gossip.

The Robartsons returned to WA over a decade ago and they continue to produce high quality chasers to this day.

In more recent times racedogs such as Hinto and Throttle have flown the flag for the kennel.

Tommy Shelby captured the nation's imagination during the Covid era.

Trained by Steve Withers ‘The People's Greyhound' racked up 31 wins from 48 starts and became the most popular greyhound in the country.   

While Tommy Shelby won plenty of nice races in WA it was his interstate campaign between October 2020 and April 2021 that cemented his legacy as one of the greats. 

Away from home, across four different states and five different racetracks, Tommy Shelby put himself on the podium in most of the major races in that span and captured victories in three Group 1s, the Hobart Thousand, the Australian Cup and Golden the Easter Egg.

His deeds landed him dual Australian Greyhound of the Year honours. 

Aside from his exciting ability a big part of Tommy Shelby's appeal was the generosity shown by his owners Steve and Kira Withers and Micheal and Jodie Harders. 

More than $50,000 of Tommy's earnings was donated to various charities throughout his career.