Greyhound racing identity Doris Marjorie Holmes passed away last week following a short illness at age 94.

Doris was involved in greyhound racing for 40 years as a participant and was a member at both the Sandown Greyhound Racing Club and the Melbourne Greyhound Racing Association.

“Mum shared in the ownership of many greyhounds with family as part of the Shiraz Racing Syndicate, which raced numerous group dogs including Delbairn Babe, Innocent Man, Lead Role, Black Shiraz, Big Ginger Boy, Coriole, Petite Verdot and Brokenwood,” son Daryl Holmes said.

“Her favourites were Delbairn Babe, who was a top stayer, group winner, Olympic Park track record holder, winner of 20 city races also the dam of Tangairn. She also had a particular soft spot for Coriole, who won the Maturity, Lizrene and Henry Harrison races, and also Brokenwood, who broke the track record at Cranbourne when becoming the first greyhound to break 30 seconds over the 520 metres.”

“For many years Mum was the real worker behind the scenes with whelping and rearing our pups to six months of age and assisting with trialling, handling and making hundreds of trips to vets Jim Gannon, Des Fegan and Barry Haywood. Mum continually backed myself and later my son Scotty in our involvement in the sport and she regularly accompanied Scotty when he did the country trips when she was in her eighties. She did all this at the same time as being a fantastic grandmother of five and great grandmother of 10.”

A funeral will be heldat St Peter’s Catholic Church, 258 Clayton Rd, Clayton, on Wednesday 31 May commencing at 11:30am.

Petite Verdot (3) was one of many topline greyhounds that Doris Holmes was involved with. Photo: Paul Munt.