Here is the story of West Australian Hall of Fame trainer Linda Britton.
Born and Bred into the Greyhound Racing Industry
Linda Britton comes from good breeding stock. She was only about nine years old when her father bought his first dog, and he went on to became one of the best trainers in Victoria. His children followed his lead; Linda and her two brothers, Robert and Jeff, are all top trainers in their own right.
While managing a music store, Britton learned a range of business principles which stood her in good stead when she eventually established her kennels. It taught her the importance of improving a business and having the best stock.
One of her best greyhounds was Paradise Street, which she trained to victory in the Group 2 National Distance Championship at Cannington in 1998. For fourteen subsequent years, Paradise Street was Western Australia’s only victor in this race.
Britton has a thriving greyhound operation near Mandurah and can have as many as 60 greyhounds in training at one time.
She has been the leading trainer at Cannington since 1999, in an unprecedented 13 consecutive years. She has also been the winner of the Leading State Trainer Award since its inception in 2003.
One of the greatest achievements for Linda, so far, is being rated as Australia’s Leading Trainer by National Greyhound Form in 2007, with 329 wins. Linda acknowledges that it’s necessary to have the numbers in the kennel to post such a large number of wins. However, she likes to point out that the biggest sense of achievement for her kennels is that their strike rate is so good. Her current strike rate is an impressive winner every four starters.
Like Father like Daughter
When Linda was announced as a nominee at the launch for the 2012 Hall of Fame, her father was visiting Western Australia at the time and was able to be present. Allan Britton was inducted into the Victorian Greyhound Racing Hall of Fame after 50 years of involvement in the industry.
Winners Trained by Year
2000 – 250 winners 2001 – 252 winners 2002 – 240 winners 2003 – 259 winners 2004 – 246 winners 2005 – 244 winners 2006 – 256 winners 2007 – 329 winners 2008 – 336 winners 2009 – 268 winners 2010 – 256 winners 2011 – 303 winners
The Big Wins
There is no Group race on the Western Australian Greyhound Racing calendar that Linda hasn’t won. In amassing 41 Group race victories, she has won:
5 Galaxies 2 Perth Cups 3 All Stars Sprints 5 Birthday Cups 2 WA Oaks 6 Mandurah Cups and the list goes on…
