Breeding: SIRE: Chariot Supreme DAM: I’m Blessed
Whelped : 07/02/1988
Trainer : Lorraine and Doug Ferremi
Owners : Lorraine Ferremi
Career Race Record : 55 starts, 38 wins, 5 placings
Career Prizemoney : $294,565
NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS:
- Winner 1990 Group 1 Melbourne Cup
- Winner 1990 Group 1 XXXX Trophy
- Winner 1990 Group 2 Shepparton Cup
- Winner 1991 Group 1 Golden Easter Egg
- Winner 1991 Group 1 Adelaide Cup
Highly Blessed had a God-given talent. Perhaps the divinity was a result of her dam (I’m Blessed) being blessed by a Catholic priest in Queensland. Doug and Lorraine Ferremi had offered I’m Blessed to a nephew who had been blinded in an accident on the proviso she be returned to Victoria for breeding purposes.
Subsequently bred and raced by the Ferremi’s, Highly Blessed was the golden girl of greyhound racing in the early 1990s. Dubbed the “Shepparton Flash” by industry scribes, Highly Blessed commenced her career on October 1, 1989. She contested 55 races for 38 wins and retired on May 28, 1992 with a then Australian record $294,565 in stakes.
But as a pup, Highly Blessed was somewhat of a loner. “She didn’t really mix with her littermates. She’d stand by herself at the gate, waiting to be fed,” Doug Ferremi said. “But when the pups were free galloping she’d jump over the top of them to get to the front. She had her own idiosyncrasies and was different from the other pups.”
The Ferremis realised at breaking-in stage that Highly Blessed was “something special”. “She was well above average while undergoing her pre-race education,” Ferremi said. “We knew she was going to be top class right from the start.” And they were to prove prophetic words.