On December 14, greyhound racing in WA will celebrate its 50 year anniversary.

David Simonette, known by all in the game simply as ‘Simo’, has been involved in the longtails from day one and has seen the sport develop from all angles.

Simo has done it all in dogs; first as a fan, then as a kennel helper, breeder, owner, trainer and steward through to various positions within racing media and as an administrator, including a stint as the CEO of Greyhounds WA.

Simo currently serves as a director on the board of Racing and Wagering WA and Greyhounds Australasia.

James Broadhurst caught up with David Simonette for the Greyhound Recorder.

James Broadhurst: What was it that attracted you to greyhound racing?

David Simonette: As a kid I always liked horses and I would love going out to the races on my birthday. My uncle Merv Dorsa, who is still a licenced trainer today, had a couple of horses back then. One was called Silver Kirsty, I remember that. I used to go to the track with my binoculars and camera and take photos of horses and stuff like that. I wanted to be a jockey…clearly I was never going to be a jockey!

When I was about ten, this was in 1972, there was talk about greyhound racing coming to Perth and the newspapers had employed greyhound writers thinking that dogs were going to start in 72, it didn’t happen until 74, but they had to basically pump out stories. So, I would read because I was sports mad, loved footy and cricket and all that. And so of course racing, so I would read the greyhound stories, they wetted my appetite and I suppose greyhounds was going to be something accessible to me and my family one day.

James Broadhurst: Cannington opened in December 1974. Were you at the track on that opening night?

David Simonette: I remember listening to the first night of racing on the radio, mum and dad and myself. We’d sit out the back, it was obviously really hot!  And we did it for years. For some reason, number eight was our number and we would have 50 cents each way on number eight in every race. Interestingly enough, the first two races at Cannington were won by eights – David Volo and Loista both won from box eight. So it was a good start. I don’t know what they paid but it was a good start.

James Broadhurst: Backing the eight probably didn’t work out too well for you in the long run though, I guess?

David Simonette: No, I wouldn’t think so. (laughs) Anyway we actually went to track the second ever night. I’m not sure why we didn’t go opening night, but we went the second night and I remember walking in there and going, ‘wow!’ So many people, the dogs, everything. And I knew then this is what I want to do. I just loved it all.

James Broadhurst: What was your first dog?

David Simonette: Dad bought a dog called Pea Green Soup with a couple of partners, I think through work, and the dog ended up getting trained by David Hamer. Now my mum was friends with Kathy Bonelli, who was David Hamer’s partner. So that was my introduction to the Hamer kennel. And I remember running around Cannington with a home made t-shirt that had ‘Pea Green Soup’ on the front. The letters were those transfer stickers you got from the shopping centre. Anyway I would parade around in that on race night.

James Broadhurst: Even back then you were into your marketing.

David Simnonette: I was! I was right into it. But yeah Pea Green Soup was very slow dog. Never won a race! (laughs) We had ownership in a few dogs after that and I starting getting hands-on experience with greyhounds at David Hamer’s kennel. I used to go to David’s every weekend and all school holidays and just help out with the dogs. I loved learning everything I could about the dogs. Pisces Attack was the first dog I trained. I trained her under my dad’s name because I was only 15 at the time and still at school.

James Broadhurst: What was the industry like back then?

David Simonette: A lot less professional than it is these days. Industry participants still didn’t like the administrators back then, so nothing’s changed there! (laughs) If you had 10 to 12 in your kennel that was considered was big kennel. Most trainers only had a few dogs, maybe one or two. Anyone who was from the eastern states was considered a guru because education levels in terms of how to prepare dogs was pretty basic. So people got their knowledge by reading. There was a couple of books going around at the time and that’s who people learnt to train their dogs. Then a few trainers came across like Claude Powell, who had trained in Adelaide and Dennis Calleja, who had trained in New South Wales. So when those sort of people came across, then people started learning a little bits and pieces from them but prior to that it was really book-based and trial and error. And of course they only really raced once a week.

James Broadhurst: What are the key moments that stick out to you over the past 50 years?

David Simonette: Clearly getting the licence for the go ahead to race after such a long time. I think that’s one that I didn’t really experience myself but I got the benefit from. I think there was so much wheeling and dealing going on. I think that was a key one. The opening of any of the new tracks was pretty big, Mandurah in ‘79 and ‘96 for Northam, I think they were all significant in their own way.

The change to from grass to sand on the tracks was significant. That was in April 1989. That was quite significant. It was a whole new way of training and a new type of dog required and everything changed then.

James Broadhurst: In what way?

David Simonette: Well, the ability to have more usage of the tracks was what it was about. The grass was great, it looked great and it raced true and you didn’t get significant differences in times that you now have from one race to another because they’ve watered or graded the track. But in the winter months it would just have this running lane of almost sand because it had been worn down.

Another event that sticks out for me is the Perth Cup won by Wynlee Supreme (1992). That night it bucketed down, I’ve never seen so much rain. I was working for 6PR (a radio station) at the time and I actually got the sack for the comments I made that night and it was all about that. At that stage Cannington had a below ground lure system carriage and I was saying there’s no way that this next race is going to happen because the carriage is like a submarine! The CEO at the time was Trevor Smith who also happened to be on the 6PR board and he got me removed from the station for my comments. There was nothing wrong with what I said, in fact the meeting was abandoned one race later.

James Broadhurst: Not long after you were on the board of Greyhounds WA when Smith was removed as the CEO (in 1993)…

David Simonette: That’s a story for another time (laughs). That said Trevor and I did have one thing in common – we both didn’t like each other very much.

James Broadhurst: You’ve always loved the media and publicity side of the business. What are your favourite promotions you’ve done with greyhounds?

David Simonette: I used to love doing the Greyhound of the Year evenings and putting on those great shows. I think I got enormous satisfaction out of people enjoying those. And they probably got bigger than probably they deserved to be but everyone loved going and those things would sell out on the first day.

All the charity stuff we did was great to be part of. I would guess that we would’ve raised $200,000 for cerebral palsy over the years with all the different things that we did with them. I think that was about seeing kids and families actually have real benefit because they got a special piece of equipment or whatever.

Another one that stands out is obviously the Hamish and Andy night, which I can’t take credit for. (In November 2006 radio personalities Hamish and Andy raced their greyhound Fred Bassett at Cannington). It was Shelly (Pascoe, who worked on reception) that got a phone call from a radio station and that somehow led to the night. And that was the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen, even bigger than our Perth Cups and New Year’s Eves. I’m not sure how many people we had, at least 7000 easy, we squeezed them in. It was crazy! Louise (David’s wife), my kids and I stayed with Hamish and Andy all night and they signed every hat, pair of undies, poster or whatever until no-one was still there waiting for a anything to be signed. And I reckon it was like one o’clock in the morning. They were the most genuine people I’ve ever seen.

These days I love assisting with The Nationals and conducting the gala dinners in Perth (2019) and Melbourne (2023) were stand-outs. Next year I am helping Brisbane with their events and I am excited to work alongside Les, Luke, Jodie and Gleeso at the QGRC.

James Broadhurst: What about the famous ‘Walk on the Track’ which became a tradition after the last race at Cannington on New Year’s Eve? The public loved it…the track staff not so much!

David Simonette: Well that started by total accident. I’m not sure what year it was, it might’ve been during Ken Norquay’s time as CEO, but the last race of the New Year’s meeting was always be sponsored by WAGBOTA, and they would come up and give a little trophy or whatever to the last winner. Anyway, I’m giving the presentation and a couple of kids from the crowd ask if they can come up and get in the photo and I say ‘yep, no worries’. They came up, had their photo taken, but when I turn my back and these kids are running on the track! They then they’re joined by pretty much everyone else from the crowd! It was chaos and of course its greatest mess of all time but the people loved it! So we decided to make it a regular feature of our New Year’s Eve meetings and we controlled it by having people stationed at certain points on the track so our equipment didn’t get wrecked or whatever. It was hugely popular and people really looked forward to it but I understand why we can’t do it anymore with the amount of racing and trialling we do these days. There’s not enough time to repair the track.

James Broadhurst: You were CEO of Greyhounds WA between 2004 and 2013. Would it be fair to say that’s when you had your biggest impact in the sport?

David Simonette: I think holding onto Cannington was probably the most demonstrable thing. (In 2009 Greyhounds WA’s lease with the Canning Horticultural, Agricultural and Recreational Society had expired. The club was being pressured by Racing and Wagering WA not to renew and move all its operations to Mandurah). If there had been a lesser person who was less passionate in the role, I think we could have gone down a terrible path because RWWA just wanted to not pay the maintenance and enter into a new lease at Cannington. They wanted to build a track inside the existing track at Mandurah. That would’ve been a disaster. I knew that. We had a report done and it showed what they proposed wasn’t even possible. They hadn’t even bothered to check if the new track would fit inside the other one. But RWWA were pushing it anyway. And I think if I hadn’t gone to bat so hard, that would’ve definitely happened.

James Broadhurst: Do you feel a sense of satisfaction that you were kind of able to out manoeuvre this much larger, more resourced organisation like RWWA?

David Simonette: The key people At RWWA were going on holidays leading up to Christmas and I knew they weren’t going to be back until February. And in that time, that’s when we mobilised everything with the ‘Save Cannington’ campaign, with the petition and all the publicity and all that stuff. We just outplayed them and got the industry combined. We got the city (of Canning) and the community on our side and we rallied them against the big, bad, ugly RWWA. And we caught them out. They didn’t expect that level of pushback and they didn’t know how to counter it. They were angry but too bad! We beat them because we were passionate and we actually cared. RWWA had a high-profile consultant that they made out to be this greyhound expert. He had no clue. I went head-to-head with him on radio and I said “Oh I may not be an expert, I’ve only been in the sport since I was 12. I’d just like to ask the expert what colour is the number two stretchvest?” Right. Dead silence. I said, “Oh you don’t know that? Okay, so let’s start the interview.” That’s how I did it. It was absolute war. But was I happy to do that? Yeah. I loved that old track.

James Broadhurst: What about the current state of greyhound racing in WA?

David Simonette: In terms of prizemoney, turnover and the financial side the sport is really strong. It’s probably never been stronger. It’s a popular wagering product.

The sport as a whole has made big advancements with animal welfare. That’s something you’re always working on but there have been big strides made in that area. The next thing is a straight track. We need to have a straight track. I think if I’m looking into the future, and I may be one out on this view, for us to be a thriving industry in 10 years’ time, Australia-wide straight track racing has got to be the go. At the moment straight track racing is generally the lower-class dogs, its broadcast during the lesser time slots, the meetings are all on Sky 2, all that. It’s not especially attractive to the punter. The TV coverage is a pretty average experience. The dogs are coming straight toward you, head on. It’s not a great viewing. And it’s absolutely too difficult to work out where your dog is in terms of relation to the other dogs and where the finishing post is in a TV situation. But I believe the first state that embraces straight track racing and says we are going to make the camera work second-to-none and make this racing a must watch will be the ones who draw benefit from it.