Our Stories

When Adam Smithson became an electrician, it wasn’t the first apprenticeship he had served. He had been an apprentice greyhound trainer to parents Ray and Belinda since he was a toddler. “We had three or four dogs in the backyard and I was always following Dad around the kennels, giving him a hand and going […]

Racing and Wagering Western Australia — the State-appointed regulator of racing — welcomes a report examining thoroughbred horse welfare across Australia. The Thoroughbred Aftercare Welfare Working Group’s (TAWWG) report, an industry group including breeders, trainers, jockeys, and owners, consulted industry and other stakeholders about the effectiveness of welfare arrangements. It made several recommendations related to […]

Legendary racehorse Rock Magic has quite a few quirks but his strapper Natasha Barbarich understands and loves all of them. The champion, trained by Chris and Michael Gangemi, ran his last race in the Winterbottom Stakes on 27 November 2021. At the age of 12, he moves on from his first career of 16 wins […]

An advanced veterinary imaging centre at Murdoch University will help Western Australian horses stay in top shape. Racing and Wagering Western Australia (RWWA) has partnered with The Animal Hospital at Murdoch University (TAHMU) to bring standing CT and MRI to the horse community, including subsidised scans for thoroughbred and standardbred racehorses. Innovations in CT and […]

Kira Withers is slightly mystified by the extraordinary worldwide following attracted by her family’s greyhound Tommy Shelby.  It’s not just because he’s a champion who has won Group 1 races across Australia.  It can’t quite be explained by their custom of donating 10 per cent of the owners’ prize money to charity after every win.  And there’s more to it than the fact that […]

When Jemma Hayman was a teenager, she and her parents had different ideas about her future.  Jemma dreamed of a life with horses. Her parents had a good education and solid career in mind.  “My uncle owned a standardbred when I was about 14 and that’s how I got the racing bug,” Jemma said.  “I spent a lot of time at the trainer’s stables and started working there at weekends but […]

The Taylors are well known in racing circles and have long been a horse family.  Lochie Taylor is the third generation of his clan to choose a life with horses and he’s proud of the tradition started by his grandparents Lois and Mick Taylor.  Three generations still join in the chores at the family property in Bullsbrook, including Lochie’s trainer dad Jim Taylor, his TV racing personality sister Brittany and grandmother Lois, who holds a special place in racing […]

Ask greyhound trainer Linda Britton about the standout animals in her life and she doesn’t mention her greatest champion but one with a big personality who loved attention. The renowned trainer’s most famous greyhound is Paradise Street, who won the Group 2 National Distance Championship at Cannington in 1998 and remained WA’s only winner in […]

Work and leisure are two different things for most people but for Mara Coombes life merges with livelihood. At work, she is Racing and Wagering Western Australia’s Off the Track WA Marketing Coordinator, supporting racehorses in finding new homes and purpose when they retire. At home, her family includes an off the track thoroughbred, an […]

The State’s three greyhound tracks are being upgraded to ensure they deliver the best levels of care for racing greyhounds following a review by the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). As part of its commitment to provide the highest animal welfare standards, Racing and Wagering Western Australia (RWWA) commissioned the UTS review, to assess the […]