Ladbrokes Racing Club and Schillaci deliver a ‘super special’ night!

It was a phenomenal climax to the $4.1m Sportsbet Dream Chasers Festival at ‘The Meadows’. On a ‘Super Saturday’ where champion hoop Damien Oliver bowed out a winner, scoring three wins from his final three rides in his home state of Western Australia, just over an hour later, greyhound racing super speedster Schillaci – named after an eight-time Group 1 winning grey-coloured sprinter of the early ’90s trained by Lee Freedman and often ridden by Oliver – won the $1.65m The Phoenix (525m) in front of an excited crowd, that race caller Dan Hibberb described as the biggest he’d ever seen at greyhound race track.

It was sporting theatre at its finest – a humble Carrum Downs pizza shop owner and trainer, Jihad Talgi and his chaser, representing Ladbrokes Racing Club, taking out a $1,000,000 first prize in the world’s richest greyhound race. Ironically, Talgi started following horse racing when he was 19 years old and the thoroughbred Schillaci was one of his two favourite horses. The other, Hareeba, was his favourite – hence the dam of Schillaci the greyhound being Flying Hareeba.

In what seemed a sporting ‘omen’, Schillaci – the greyhound – ‘flew the barriers’ (Box 5) and as Talgi would say – “put his name up in lights forever”.

A rank outsider in the race, Schillaci ($20.60) – representing slot holder Ladbrokes Racing Club notched his 11th win from 19 starts defeating ex-Kiwi Postman Pat Greyhounds HQ ($6.60) by 0.8L, with Hector Fawley Total Container Solutions ($4.80) a further 1.8L away third in 29.87sec. In aligning the win to something we can all understand, The Phoenix’s $1m winner’s purse equates to Talgi churning out around 67,000 family-size pizzas. What a way to make a ‘crust’!

Race Details

DATE: Saturday December 16 2023
TOTAL PRIZE MONEY: $1,6500,000
FIRST PLACE PRIZE MONEY: $1,000,000
SLOT HOLDER WINNER: Ladbrokes Racing Club
GREYHOUND WINNER: Schillaci (29.87 sec)
TRAINER WINNER: Jihad Talgi