It’s an event that has been at the start of the racing careers of the past two Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase winners, and Greyhound Racing NSW has today confirmed the Robert Smith Memorial will have minor change to its timing in 2026.
Next year, heats of the 515m feature at Ladbrokes Gardens will be run on February 7, with the $20,000 to the winner final a week later on February 14.
The reasoning behind bringing the series forward a week is for fluidity of programming so that the event aligns better with other feature events programmed for that class of greyhound around, and beyond the Memorial.
In 2024 Power And Glory began his career with a third place in the final of the Memorial behind Mr Peregrine, a career which would include wins in this year’s Ladbrokes Golden Easter Egg and the Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase.
In the heats of the Memorial last year, Blue Kermaro missed a spot in the final when finishing third behind Lottie Ellie and Power And Glory. He of course went on to with the Million Dollar Chase eight months later.
Among other greyhounds to have commenced their careers in the feature series are French Martini (2022 winner) who would go on to win the Group 2 Black Top, Embrace (2022 runner-up) who would go on to win the Group 1 Peter Mosman Opal, Vamoose (third in 2022) would win the Ladbrokes Thunderbolt Final, and Has Ability (third in 2023) who would reach the Million Dollar Chase Final later that year.
The Robert Smith Memorial will again be sponsored by Kevin and Leonie Gordon through their Multicam Routing Systems business.
