Rockhampton Greyhounds continuing to reach new heights

By Andrew Smith

Rob Weeding and Juanita Thompson both marvelled at the evolution of greyhound racing in Rockhampton at this year’s Queensland Greyhound Awards.

And it is that growth that has the duo admitting it will be a tough battle to back up their premiership wins in 2026.

Weeding was on hand at the ceremony at The W Brisbane to accept the Rockhampton Greyhound of the Year award for star chaser Play Dirty.

Thompson meanwhile was crowned the Rockhampton Trainer of the Year for a season that saw her claim over 130 victories in the Beef Capital.

Play Dirty was a deserving winner of the top accolade after a blistering 2025 campaign that netted 20 wins from 35 starts.

The tally partly included the black dog’s 12 straight victories at Rockhampton from the start of 2024 into 2025, under the care of trainer Dallas Beckett.

Weeding, who took Play Dirty into his kennel in July 2025, reflected on the top chaser’s remarkable achievements.

“I got five wins out of him before his retirement, but he was just a phenomenal dog,” Weeding said.

“He was one of the elite in my kennel, so I was very happy to take him on.

“He just loved the Rockhampton track - his early speed was phenomenal, he would just get out of the box and go and his drive is what won him so many races.

“He could come from behind if he had to, he was just next level.”

Thompson’s 2025 campaign saw her net 131 wins from over 1000 starts, holding out Steven Scott, Amber Boody and Kelly Suli in the premiership race.

The Tungamull conditioner paid tribute to South East Queensland dog man Warren Nicholls and wife Tracey when accepting the honour.

“It's definitely a challenge to get there, and a lot of hard work, but it’s fantastic to actually win an award like that,” Thompson said.

“We've just had some fantastic owners that have given us some really good dogs to achieve what we did.

“We work in with Warren and Tracy Nicholls, and we have a lot of their pups come up who might start their racing career with us, and then go back to Warren as they start to improve and get a lot better.”

Toss The Coin, Exploitation and Blake’s John continue to fly the flag for Thompson’s operation in Central Queensland.

With the assistance of the Nicholls kennel, Thompson is already looking ahead to making it back-to-back premierships in 2026.

“They’re fantastic dogs and they give it 100% every week they go around, and we've been lucky we've had a couple of handy dogs, and hopefully a few handy ones to come,” Nicholls said.

“We're hoping Warren and Tracey have got a few good ones up their sleeves that are going to come our way and start their careers with us.

“We've also got a litter which is out of the full sister to Alpha Zulu in Flying Zulu.

“They've just been broken in, and they look to be heading in the right direction that we were hoping for so fingers crossed we'll have some little ones shining there I hope.”

Both Weeding and Thompson agreed the rise in the quality of greyhound racing in Rockhampton had made for stiffer competition in the battle for the top spots.

“It’s grown a lot and there's some awesome dogs - I've only been training about five or six years, and when I first started, it wasn't that hard to win a race,” Thompson said.

“But at the moment, there's such good quality dogs up there, and there's just so much coming up, and it seems to be growing and improving with the quality of dogs, which has been fantastic.”

Weeding added: “The club has come a long way from what it was when I first started going there a few years back, so looking forward to the next few years coming up.

“I've got some young pups coming through, so I'm looking forward to them, but it's getting hard to win a race in Rockhampton so we'll just do our best.”