The Geelong Winter Cup will now be run as the Joe Pearl Winter Cup, named in memory of Corio trainer and Life Member of the Geelong Greyhound Racing Club Joe Pearl.

Joe Pearl passed away in June of 2018 after many years dedicated to the sport of greyhound racing which saw him reach one of the highest heights – the 1990 Australian Cup with Spread Eagled.

“Our family is extremely proud of our involvement in greyhound racing and the immense enjoyment it has provided my parents (Joe and Wendy Pearl) and us children for many years,” Joe and Wendy’s son Peter Pearl said.

“Having the dogs and litters of pups in the yard which brought us all together as a family and provided us all with great love and enjoyment as they are such a beautiful and fantastic animal.”

“Joe was a dedicated and enthusiastic member of our Club for many years and we are so pleased to be able to rename one of our feature events on our calendar to honour what he did for our club,” Geelong GRC Chairman Mark Pearson said.

“I recall when Spread Eagled won the Australian Cup at Olympic Park, Joe famously lifted the dog up after the race and said, ‘this is the ice-cream on the cake’. He obviously meant to say icing, not ice-cream, which made the crowd laugh.”

Friday night will see the first running of the Joe Pearl Geelong Winter Cup which is run over the 520 metre distance.

With $9,000 on offer, the Joe Pearl Winter Cup attracted two heats with both heats going the way of local trainers.

Matthew Nash won the opening heat with Last Hurrah in a time of 29.869sec while Marcus Lloyd claimed the second heat with in the inform Blue Hunter (30.190sec).

Despite finishing third in her heat to Last Hurrah, Sweet As Emm is the Watchdog elect after drawing box one.

“Sweet As Emm has drawn perfect and Cawbourne Get Up (box two) generally jumps well and runs centre of the track which should give her plenty of room.” trainer Brendan Pursell.

“Geelong is more or less her home track. She always trials fast there, and I think it’s a nice race for her.”