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Temlee

Breeding: SIRE: Tivoli Chief DAM: Temora Lee

Whelped : 01/03/1972

Trainer : Frank Cray / STUDMASTER – Tony Marino

Owners : Ray Hocken

Career Race Record : 37 starts, 25 wins, 3 placings

Career Prizemoney : $26,000

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENT:

  • Winner Victorian Sires’ Premiership 1978-1982  

The immortal Temlee will always be remeber for the amazing influence he had on the Australain greyhound breeding industry. Interestingly enough Temlee battled life-threatening illness as a pup and may not have survived only for the diligent care of his trainer Frank Cray, a Sale railway worker.

Bred in 1972 by Barry Bailey, a former Sale Greyhound Racing Club president, Temlee was purchased for $135 as a two-month-old pup by Ray Hocken, who passed away in 2002. “Barry Bailey was a friend of Frank Cray and he suggested dad buy one of the pups,” said Hocken’s son, Rod of Leongatha. “But Temlee contracted distemper and hepatitis, and Barry offered dad another pup. Fortunately he decided to stick with him and Frank nursed him back to health. “Frank loved his greyhounds; he treated them like pets. Temlee spent most of his time inside Frank’s house; he was a very placid dog.”

Temlee, who raced on 37 occasions for 25 wins, was the undisputed ‘King of Olympic Park’. He won 13 races from 19 starts on Swan Street’s No. 2 Oval – including the 1974 National Sprint Championship, 1974 Maturity and a 29.67sec track record in 1974, a mark that stood for 10 years. “We thought he was the greatest. He gave us a lot of thrills including my mum Bev, brother Greg and sister Kate,” Rod said. “He was a mad railer, and was never defeated from box one. He was a bit tardy out of the boxes, but once he found his feet he had terrific acceleration. Dad owned the Maffra Hotel at the time, and many of the locals would congregate to watch him race.”

In late November 1974, Temlee’s race career came to an abrupt halt when he cracked a bone in his left hind leg at Olympic Park. Consequently Temlee was retired to stud and stood at the home of his sire, Tivoli Chief, at Tony Marino’s Diamond Creek stud complex. “He initially stood for a fee of $300 in 1975, which jumped to $1000 (a record at the time) within a year or so,” Rod said.

“I tried to follow his progeny but lost track of them. But I remember some of the early ones – Satan’s Legend, Tempix, Tangaloa, Chief Dingaan, World Acclaim and Roy Trease.” Temlee won the Victorian Sires’ Premiership five times (1978-82) and sired 735 litters.

Rod Hocken said Temlee’s induction into the Victorian greyhound racing Hall of Fame was “a great honour and just tops everything off”.