Syd and Haylewie Miss are a must-tell Ipswich story

By Terry Wilson

There are obviously many stories that can be told about the history of greyhound racing at the Ipswich track, with the curtain to come down on the historic showgrounds circuit on Saturday night.

However, several of those stories deserve special mention.

One of them involves a trainer named Sydney Lewis, who will always have a special part in the local club’s history books by being the only trainer to win back-to-back Ipswich Gold Cups with the same greyhound.

Lewis did this in 1991 and 1992 with a wonderful bitch called Haylewie Miss when the event was raced over 512 metres.

No one else has managed back-to-back Cup wins and Lewis did it in typical Ipswich tradition when he was working underground in the coal mines and doubling up in the greyhound training stakes.

Turning 82 in June, Lewis for decades worked the ironically nicknamed ‘dog shift’ from 11pm to 6am before turning his attention to the greyhounds after some breakfast.

“I did that shift for 40 years and my wife Ann-Marie used to empty out the dogs before I got home,” said Lewis.

“I was never a full-time trainer and I did it for about 30 years.”

Lewis raced greyhounds at many former south-east Queensland tracks such as the Gabba, Gold Coast Paceway, Parklands, Toowoomba, Border Park, Beenleigh and Lawnton.

Now Ipswich is also set to close after its final race meeting on Saturday night with racing transitioning to the new state-of-the-art The Q.

So, even though he has been out of the game for 30 or so years, he can understand the sadness attached to the closures.

Yet he cheers up when the name (and deeds) of Haylewie Miss are brought up.

A finalist in the 1992 Queensland Greyhound Of The Year award, Haylewie Miss was by Bogenfel from Royal Venture and was part-owned by a mate Jack Hayes (hence the bitch’s name, a combination of Hayes and Lewis).

In all, the bitch had 62 starts for 35 wins, nine seconds and 10 thirds, with only eight unplaced runs.

At Ipswich over 512m, she had 22 starts for 15 wins, three seconds and two thirds and was only twice unplaced at that track.

But there was much more to Haylewie Miss’s ability because she also had wins at Wentworth Park, Parklands, Lawnton and Toowoomba.

Adding to this she had a start in the Melbourne Cup when she shared a motel room with Lewis during the lead-up and which may have taken the edge off her.

“I thought she was good enough to win it, but I think she was on edge all the time,” said Lewis.

“I should have taken her down a week earlier, but she did run second to the eventual winner in her heat.”

Getting back to Haylewie Miss’ two Ipswich Cups, she highlighted her second win in the event by breaking the 512m track record with a time of 30.00 seconds.

The two Cups earned Lewis first money of $12,500 and $13,500, which is a far cry from the Group 1-winning purse of $150,000 these days.

Lewis agrees it is fitting that Ipswich’s closing night on Saturday will farewell the track with a bang with the final of the Auction Golden Chase, worth $100,000 to the winner as a parting memory.

The puppy Auction was a wonderful promotional concept by the club and earned the organisation unprecedented publicity around the nation.

We will leave it to Lewis for the final words on the end of an Ipswich era.

“I have only fond memories of racing at Ipswich and easily understand how people will feel about it being closed,” he said.

“But with the new track it just has to be a positive outlook.”