THERE were joint winners of the RPGTV/GWA Greyhound of the Month for September with Brookside Richie and Space Jet breaking new ground for the honour by sharing the award following a vote from Greyhound Writers’ Association members.

The David Mullins-trained, Rich Vickers-owned Brookside Richie won the Coral Romford Puppy Cup, while the Matt Dartnall-trained, Kurn Rushen-owned Space Jet lifted the Arena Racing Company St Leger at Perry Barr in record-breaking style.

Clive Lawrence, RPGTV’s executive producer, said: “Congratulations to the connections of both Brookside Richie and Space Jet. It was a fantastic, high-quality month of performances with a busy schedule, but two outstanding big-race winners so well done to David (Mullins) and Matt (Dartnall) and the dogs’ respective owners.

“Here at RPGTV we had the good fortune to follow Brookside Richie’s path to Romford Puppy Cup glory and he really does look like a Derby dog for 2022, while it’s been great to see Space Jet’s progress from the St Leger to winning the big Towcester marathon and I’m sure she’ll be in the reckoning now for October’s award!”

GWA chairman Jonathan Hobbs added: “When the votes started coming in for September, it was obvious Brookside Richie and Space Jet had the edge. It went one way, then the other, and ultimately we had an identical number for both. I suppose a chairman’s vote could have decided matters, but that needed me coming off the fence!

“No, this is absolutely the right decision and it’s great that, with RPGTV’s support for the award, we were able to call upon Mark Burridge at Burridge Trophies to arrange for separate trophies to be sent to both sets of connections and they can share the honour and, as Clive says, I’d imagine both will feature in future monthly award votes.

“As has been said, September was a busy month with lots of top-class racing and competitions so it’s also fair to acknowledge the two other nominated greyhounds in the month which were Antigua Storm after his BresBet East Anglian Derby success at Yarmouth for Mark Wallis and Angela Harrison’s Coolavanny Aunty after her Empress Stakes win at Towcester.”