A quarter of a century after winning the Sale Cup with champion sprinter/sire Malawi’s Prince the Dewan family are hoping to celebrate a second victory in the race on Boxing Day with outsider Dewana Dimie. 
While the Sale Cup is now run over 650m, back in 1991 it was held over 424m when the great Malawi’s Prince (pictured below), which was fatefully chosen as a pup by a teenage Matthew Dewan, reigned supreme.

 
“I remember the day we drove up to Swan Hill to Peter and Olive Maxwell’s place and picked out Malawi’s Prince,” Brendan Dewan recalled.
 
“It was 40 degrees and my son Matthew, who was only 14 at the time, chose a little blue pup and that’s how we got Malawi’s Prince.”
 
The Dewans will be striving to add a second Sale Cup to the mantelpiece with the lightly-raced Dewana Dimie, which was having just her 15th start in last Sunday’s heats when she upset odds-on favourite Burn One Down at 40/1.
 
“I think Dewana Dimie’s going to make a handy stayer and I thought she could run a place in her heat but I didn’t think she could beat Burn One Down. I thought he would just blow her away,” Dewan said.
 
“They only ran slow time (37.90sec) but I didn’t think the run was too bad.
 
“Dewana Dimie is from a repeat mating and she’s similar to Dewana Babe and Dewana Lass from the first litter. They both won over the distance in town and won about $80,000 in prizemoney each. The litter, which also included Dewana Result, has won $360,000.
 
“Dewana Dimie hasn’t had a lot of racing because she came on season and she lost a bit of confidence for a while but I think she’s coming good now.”
 
Dewana Dimie will have to repeat her heat heroics in Monday evening’s Cup Final, with Dewan rating Dundee Osprey and Ring The Bell, trained by good friends Geoff Scott-Smith and Gerry O’Keeffe respectively, as the hardest to beat.
 
“They’re both mates of mine and I think they’ll probably fight it out,” Dewan said.
 
“They both came back to greyhound racing after getting out for a while and now they’re winning Group 1 races. I’m trying to learn off them but they don’t want to teach me!
 
“My wife Lynn wants to go on a river cruise overseas and I told her that if we win the Sale Cup she could go, but I think she’s going to go anyway!
 
“It’s just a pleasure to be in the race and if Dewana Dimie could run a place I’ll be absolutely ecstatic, but I think in another six months she could really be competitive in these types of races.”

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