Saturday night saw the curtain drawn on a massive two weeks for the Horsham Greyhound Club.
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Across the past fourteen days the club has conducted four race meetings with feature races including the Group 2 Horsham Cup on March 4 and the Sylvia Penny Memorial Final taking place on March 5.
Sylvia was the heartbeat of the Horsham Greyhound Club for over thirty years in which she dedicated herself as a volunteer and there was no job that Sylvia didn't try her hand at in her time at the club and is the reason that the function centre at the club is named in her honour.
It was fitting that on the night of Sylvia's Race the club could follow her theme of giving back by presenting no less than thirteen community grants to local organisations and groups, something Sylvia would have been proud of, no doubt.
The race itself was won by the ultra-consistent Body Hack for Alfred Debattista of Sedgwick who has won ten of its last fourteen starts, and sixteen from twenty nine career starts.
The $10,000 first prize takes Body Hack's overall prizemoney won to a tick under $42,000.
Bill and Helen Hartigan flew the local flag in the final with Kraken Shimmer and she acquitted herself very well just missing the minor placings in a blanket finish of dogs from third to fifth.
Representatives from almost all of the thirteen organisations attended the night and between races club Manager Justin Brilliant and President Ian Bibby presented the cheques individually to each group.
Originally slated as a $10,000 project the response was simply overwhelming and unfortunately the club couldn't approve all of the applications but did stretch the budget out to $14,000 that we see as a great investment back into our community.
Each grant recipient received the fund to make investments in the community's future - our youth.
With the overwhelming success of the project the club will look to do a second round of grants sometime over the next six months.
The club encourages all those unsuccessful on this occasion to re-apply.
The club couldn't have wished for better conditions on the night with a warm balmy night and the live music of Aaron Murray playing between races with kids playing mini golf, jumping on the bouncing castles it was the perfect finish to the carnival.
The club raffled off two major items, $500 EB Games voucher and a $1200 Webcon Marine package, all patrons could enter via a QR code on entry and all persons whom followed our Facebook promotion of the event were entered into the draw of their choice.
Across the coming weeks, the club will be featuring individual grant recipients to shine a light on the projects undertaken.