Breeding: SIRE: Light Of Fire DAM: Tranquil Flame
Whelped : 23/09/1994
Trainer : Jason Thompson
Owners : Adbarave (Syndicate)
Career Race Record : 67 starts (33 wins, 21 placings)
Career Prizemoney : $150,000 (approx)
NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS:
- Winner 1996 Group 1 Silver Chief
- Winner 1998 Sale Cup
- 2nd 1997 Group 1 Topgun
- 3rd 1997 Group 2 Cranbourne Cup
- 3rd 1998 Group 2 Ballarat Cup
- Finalist 1998 Group 2 Warragul Cup
- Finalist 1998 Group 1 Golden Easter Egg
- Holder of eight track records across Victoria
AWESOME ALL-ROUND PACKAGE
The night of Thursday 23rd December, 1996 was perhaps the most pivotal in the life of now champion greyhound trainer Jason Thompson and partner Seona Hood.
That evening, Thompson’s promising young greyhound Awesome Assassin was one of the favourites for the Silver Chief Classic final at Sandown Park, Victoria’s premier race for young male sprinters.
Just three days earlier Jason and Seona experienced one of life’s greatest emotional roller-coasters as they became parents for the first time thanks to the arrival of a baby boy they named Ben.
Going into the race Thompson, then 27, a full-time trainer with a work-a-holic attitude, was feeling the weight of expectations on his shoulders.
Despite winning the Silver Chief, Traralgon Cup and Melbourne Cup with his first real good greyhound, Awesome Assassin’s sire Light Of Fire two years earlier, not having a 9-to-5 job that provided a stable wage was taking its toll.
They needed the win, and their young superstar Awesome Assassin didn’t let them down, scoring by nine lengths.
“Seona and I were fairly young when we became parents and you could say that at that time we were struggling for money. We needed him to win [the Silver Chief] and we hoped that he’d go on to become the dog he did. For him to win that race at the time when Ben was born was such a weight off our shoulders. He was so dominant that night and it just set things up. He got us going to where we are today,” Thompson said.
Adding to the emotion was that Thompson had a strong attachment to Awesome Assassin having followed him closely since he was a young pup.
“I trained his sire and I also trained his dam, Tranquil Flame. He was the only male pup in a litter of six and I kept close tabs on him when he was breaking-in in the hope that the breeder Kevin Burns would one day ask me to train him. Kevin and I had an association as I trained Tranquil Flame for him, and I’m obviously grateful that he also gave me the chance to train Awesome Assassin”, Thompson said.
Awesome Assassin went on to establish himself as the fastest greyhound of his era, with the versatile speedstar racing all over Victoria and breaking an incredible eight track records in the process.
The giant 37kg black superstar thrilled punters and fans alike with his extraordinary burst of power and strength for more than two years, during which time he accumulated 33 wins from 67 starts.