Experience

Ken Brotherton

Ken is a life-long greyhound farmer and owner from Oklahoma.  He was raised on a greyhound farm and has worked with greyhounds since he was a boy.   He attended agricultural college at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M and spent his time working on farms as a youth.  His father bred and raced racing greyhounds including L.C’s Recoil and L.C.’s Tinkerbell, who were both stakes dogs.  One was the win leader in Orlando and the other Finalist of the Raynham Derby (winning 9 in a row).

In the greyhound business, Ken has worked for some of the most prestigious dog men in the industry including Keith Dillon (breeder of Understood and Downing), managed the farm operation for Hall of Famer Dick Andrews (owner of Marathon Hound) and trained the racing kennels of Pat Collins (breeder of Pat C Rendevouz, world record for 36 straight wins).

Ken traveled to The Woodlands for Charter Kennel to train Sonic Design in the Great American Greyhound Futurity. Ken won numerous stake races for Charter Kennel at both Palm Beach and Southland.  Most recently he trained Ct Buck Wild (2010 1st Team All-American, 2009 2nd Team All-American and the only 2-time Southland Derby Winner), Krypto Drive (2010 Southland Razorback Finalist), Johnnyattherail (4th 2010 Southland Derby), Silver Idol (2-time Southland Derby Finalist), Tempo Sugar Pop and Boinkers Drive (both 2010 Southland Derby Consolation Finalists).  Charter Kennel greyhounds had an amazing 4 finalists in the 2010 Southland Derby…half of the field!

At Palm Beach he broke the all-time kennel win record at Palm Beach (old record was 570 wins for a single meet) and Ken finished with over 600 wins.  He also broke the Palm Beach record for the most wins in a week (23) and the record for the most money any kennel had ran out in a single meet.Oneco Milkytea, Visions Of Money, Tycam Labatts, Banker Hud and Crocodile Kidd.

Farm Development and Track Training Experience

Ken left for the racetrack in 1971 and trained racing greyhounds for his family at various tracks including:

• Sodrac Park
• Sanford-Orlando
• Sarasota
• Tampa
• West Palm Beach
• Biscayne
• Raynham
• Taunton
• Wonderland
• Wheeling
• Council Bluffs
• Woodlands
• Colorado Springs
• Southland
• Wichita
• St. Croix Meadows
• Birmingham

His stakes victories include:

• 2010 Southland Night of Stars (Ct Buck Wild)
• 2010 $55,000 Southland Derby (Ct Buck Wild)
• 2010 $55,000 Southland Derby Finalist (Silver Idol)
• 2010 Chris Chance Memorial (Ct Buck Wild)
• 2010 Southland $25,000 Southland Razorback Classic Finalist (Krypto Drive)
• 2010 Southland Razorback Consolation Finalist (Tempo Sugar Pop)
• 2010 Southland Hound Madness Finalist (Ct Buck Wild)
• 2010 Southland Inaugural (Ct Buck Wild)
• 2009 Southland Best Greyhound Arkansas Course (Ct Buck Wild)
• 2009 2nd Team All-American (Ct Buck Wild)
• 2009 Southland Barry Baldwin Juvenile (Ct Buck Wild)
• 2009 $50,000 Southland Derby (Ct Buck Wild)
• 2009 $50,000 Southland Derby Finalist (Silver Idol)
• 2009 Festival of Stakes Middle Distance – 2nd (Ruff Wind)
• 2009 Festival of Stakes Middle Distance – 3rd (Tempo Sugar Pop)
• 2002 Palm Beach Rooney’s Pub Classic (Tycam Labatts)
• 2002 $25,000 St. Patrick’s Day Invitational (Tycam Labatts)
• 2002 $25,000 Palm Beach Dick Andrews Futurity (Crocodile Kidd)
• 2001 $25,000 Palm Beach Labor Day Puppy Stake (Banker Hud)
• 2000 Palm Beach Rooneys Pub Stake (Oneco Milkytea)
• 2000 Palm Beach James W. Paul Derby (Visions of Money)
• 1999 Palm Beach Labor Day Puppy Stakes (Oneco Milkytea)
• 1981 Tampa Derby (Judge Pine)
• 1981 Sarasota Puppy Stakes (Judge Pine)
• 1981 Sarasota Derby (Judge Pine)
• 1978 Sodrac King Stakes (Ll’s Bobert)
• 1978 Sodrac King & Queen Stakes (Ll’s Bobert)
• 1976 Puppy Stakes Sanford Orlando (Lc’s Lucifer)
• 1973 Sanford Orlando Queen Stakes (Lc’s Tinkerbell)
• 1973 Raynham Inaugural (Go Pamela)
• 1972 King & Queen Stakes Sanford Orlando (Lc’s Recoil)
• 1971 Sodrac Park Puppy Stakes (Lf’s Hurry Harry)

Wendy Brotherton

Wendy spent her youth growing up on “K-Farms”, a thoroughbred (and later hunter/jumper) horse farm in Ortonville, Michigan.  She obtained her Bachelors Degree in Finance from Louisiana State University in Shreveport, LA.  She worked as a Casino Marketing Analyst for Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. for the Horseshoe Casino and Louisiana Downs in Shreveport, LA.  In 2008, she relocated with her family to Memphis, TN where she worked for AutoZone, Inc. as a Merchandising Analyst.

Wendy attended several National Greyhound Association meets over the past 15 years in Abilene, Kansas where she bought her first greyhound, D’s Black Magic.  Magic was a multiple AA/stakes racer at Gulf Greyhound Park, Derby Lane and Palm Beach. She purchased more greyhounds in Ireland including Elbony Isambard, Clarinka Best, Elbony Flight, Clarinka Tom, Dalcash Focus and Elbony Falcao.  Stonehaven Racing Greyhounds, Inc. was formed to manage the greyhounds racing in Ireland, America and Scotland. She purchased and bred females including Greys Front Page, Dainty Wag and Dreamy Ocean. Dainty Wag produced Grade A/Stakes racer, Oban Laria by Craigie Whistler in south Florida.  Dreamy Ocean produced Hf’s Dreamy Tree, Grade A/Stakes (Semi-Finalist Dick Andrews Futurity) at Palm Beach and Greys Front Page produced Oban Sirine by Malawis Prince who was AA at Corpus Christi.

Greyhound racing fansites online were not prevalant at the time, so in November 2000 Wendy developed GlobalGreyhounds, LTD, with her partner in Ireland, James Corbett.  GlobalGreyhounds.com is still the largest greyhound fansite online with over 12,000 members and 600,000 posts.  It continues to be a hub for greyhound fans around the world to network online.

Wendy built the TesioPower database program for greyhound pedigrees as a joint-venture with a developer in Australia. By studying the bloodlines of thousands of greyhounds, she became a very astute analyst for greyhound pedigrees around the world and still enjoys studying them to this day.  She helped import semen into the US from some of the top Irish greyhound sires through GlobalSires.  These sires include the sensational Premier Fantasy, Droopys Kewell, Droopys Vieri and Droopys Maldini.

The Greyhound Racing Association of America was a project that Wendy co-founded as an unincorporated non-profit membership association.  The amount of bad press that the greyhound industry received from animal rights activists inspired her to contribute to this project.  Greyhound fans online on GlobalGreyhounds.com felt would be a great way to improve the industry, both through positive media exposure and responsible greyhound ownership.  The topic came to be known as “The Plan” and several members participated by offering their input and suggestions. One month later, in March, the Greyhound Racing Association of America was founded by the help of Ron Hevener and Wendy Brotherton (at the time Hamilton).  By working with a committee of dedicated volunteers, a series of inspired projects were initiated.  Meetings were held on a monthly basis and milestones were met by setting goals for the future of our sport. During April of 2002, GRA/America held its first informational booth at the NGA Spring Meet.  It signed over 100 new members at this event, but the majority of our members joined through the help of the informational website which was provide to help dispel the myths about the greyhound industry.

The Greyhound Racing Association of America worked directly with the National Greyhound Association’s executives Gary Guccione and Tim Horan, on issues related to public relations and media coverage.  GRA was also invited to speak at the American Greyhound Track Owners Association national convention (AGTOA) which  took place at Treasure Island Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Wendy was also invited to represent GlobalGreyhounds, LTD. at the convention and will be given time to speak to the track operators.

As a vehicle to spread good news about greyhound racing to its industry members, Wendy co-founded the “Racing Greyhound Insider” with Jim Roche, who at the time was the respected manager of the late Pierre Amestoy’s greyhound operations. Pierre was a successful racing quarter horse breeder as well as kennel operator. The “RGI” was a free publication that was circulated in the US to 5,000 members. It featured positive stories and news about Greyhound Racing in America with timely news, trainer interviews, track management interviews, handicapping tips, and advice on raising, training and racing greyhounds.  It featured articles on farm and track life, humor, international spotlights and classified ads.

The Racing Greyhound Insider was delivered to every member of the NGA as well as every racing kennel in the country. Exclusive free track distribution to the public including: Derby Lane, Tampa, Daytona Beach, Jacksonville Area, Wheeling Downs, Bluffs Run, Cloverleaf, Wichita, Hinsdale and Woodlands. Wendy learned how to layout the newspaper using publishing software and worked directly with the publishing house to get the optimum effect for the newspaper. She made sales calls and filled the newspaper with advertising to finance the publishing costs and worked directly with the reporters to make sure they met their deadlines. Some of the premier columnists included Vera Filipelli (Derby Lane), Kelly Clark (Jacksonville), Stan Palowski (Wheeling Downs), Shane Bolender (Palm Beach), Troy Wyle (Raynham/Taunton) as well as several high profile contributors including Kip Keefer, the founder of the National Night of Stars who represented Tucson Greyhound Park. Wendy wrote a column of her own where she would interview a respected member of the greyhound community. The paper was well-received and served as a great medium to promote GRA, GlobalGreyhounds as well as greyhound adoption efforts.