For Mark Suttle, it will end just like it began. With his mates, at the Dapto Greyhounds.
Many years after Suttle first attended the Dapto twilight race meetings with his mates, he will tonight be joined again by friends made across many years to say farewell to the iconic venue.
After almost 89 years in existence, tonight will be the final race meeting ever held at the Dapto Showground and Suttle will have a front row seat having qualified one of his team for this evening’s feature event, the Group 1 Ladbrokes Megastar.
“I think like everyone I’m going to a bit sad saying goodbye,” Suttle said. “I’ve been coming here for a long, long time. From a really young age I used to go to the to the Dapto twilights with a couple of mates and the interest just sparked from there.
“I was living in Wollongong at the time, but then I moved just down the road from the track, and got my first dog, a dog called Offspring, then it all just took off from there.
“I’ve made so many good friends here at Dapto. It was a regular Thursday night thing and we would go even if I didn't have any runners.”
With he and his wife Tracie owning businesses they would have their greyhounds trained by legendary local trainer Owen Makin and his wife Anne. They enjoyed “moderate success” with Spice Magic making the Wentworth Park final of the Ladies Bracelet and winning city races, as did another dog called Mad Magic.
“We've always had nice dogs, but we have only really got into it seriously over the last four or five years. We bought a property in the Shoalhaven and now do it all ourselves,” Suttle said.
“We've started our own breeding and (Skedaddle) Arlo we picked the breeding of his litter and he was whelped by my wife and we reared the dog and went through the whole process of getting him to the track.”
Skedaddle Arlo won his heat of the Ladbrokes Megastar last Thursday and tonight will line-up looking to be the last ever winner of the Group 1 at Dapto.
Arlo is just one of many Skedaddles for the Suttles.
“My daughter Casey was looking for something that said quick or nippy or something like that, but as you can imagine most of those names are gone, so she just sort of went through and came up Skedaddle. We all agreed and that's what we've gone with.
“It’s exciting to have a Megastar finalist on the last night ever at Dapto, and it would be amazing to win. I’ve never won a Group race let alone a Group 1.
“But to be honest, we're just happy to be there. Win, lose or draw, we’re happy to be involved in the last Dapto Megastar.”
Officials are expecting a large crowd at the Showground tonight as many people who have visited Dapto over the years, come back for one last memory.
So many people have so many memories since the first race meeting was held at Dapto on Thursday, February 25, 1937.
In 1939, Dapto became the first club in NSW to introduce night racing under lights, the first of many revolutionary moves to extend the sport’s appeal and reach.
Among other innovations were the world’s richest race the $100,000 Super Coat Classic in 1991, the first track in NSW to switch from grass to loam in 1992, while superstar Flying Amy also graced the track in the four-dog Shoot Out during a busy decade.
In the late 1990s the venue hit mainstream media when avid industry supporter, rugby league star Terry Hill, regularly brought the Channel 9 Footy Show cameras to Dapto. They also famously promoted the greyhound Nads which was trained by Greg Wynn and would raise more than $250,000 for the Children’s Hospital.
The club staged their inaugural Puppy Auction - another first of its kind - in 1999, with the accompanying race series held the following year. The $40,000 final was won by Electric Grace.
The Megastar was born as an Invitational event in 2010 with Mr Metz winning. In 2011 the race gained Group 3 status, it was elevated to Group 2 the following year, and then in 2013 the Megastar became a Group 1 event, won by Victorian Peter Rocket.
While it doesn’t have the Group status nor the lofty prizemoney, one of the most prestigious events on the Dapto calendar is the Silver Collar.
Back in 1963 Betty and Max Pomeroy, trainers based in the region, wanted to put something back into the sport, so they launched the Silver Collar. Won by the likes of Zoom Top, the Silver Collar has continued to this day, won last month by Taormina.
And here we are now, 11 September, 2025.
One last night. One last race meeting. One final Megastar, and importantly, one final lasting memory for all.
