3 minute read

Saturday night at Wentworth Park provided greyhound racing and the world with one of the greatest fairytale stories in our sport. As tears of jubilation and joy flowed as Wyndra All Class etched her name in greyhound racing winning the National Futurity.

Wyndra All Class showed her tenacity and her will to win as she pursued long time leader Victa Marli down the back straight.Moving to the outside of Victa Marli as they swung for home she gave the leader a nudge as she galloped on into history as she placed her name on the honour roll as a Group One Futurity winner. 

Sue Barton has been fighting terminal cancer for two years and prior to last night's race was in hospital. It was an amazing effort alone from Sue to get herself to the track who was admirably supported by her loving husband Brian as the fairytale of the evening unfolded. Sue stated "Nothing was going to stop me from being at the track for Brian tonight".

Wyndra All Class is more commonly known to the Bartons as ''Annie'', a name given by Sue to pay homage to Brian and Sue's wedding anniversary. The Bartons always intended to train her after whelping and rearing her. However as Sue's illness intesified, Brian sought the assistance of expert trainer Daniel Gatt. 

Daniel is the brother of well know trainer Mark and has for some time been the lesser known trainer of the two. However good experts know that Daniel has been the backbone of much of what the Gatt's have achieved in greyhound racing. Last nights victory gave Daniel his first ever Group One winner, he too overcome with emotion with the win. 

The evening however was typified by broadcaster Mark Duclos who is a friend of Brian Barton's. While broadcasting for GRNSW live stream Mark became visibly emotional on air as the reality of the win hit home. As he choked up he stated that ''No one can imagine what Sue is going through''. Mark went on to say he was emotional because it's such a ''bloody horrible disease''. 

The emotional win of Wyndra All Class will leave it's mark on the sport forever. Sometimes under the hardest of adversity, an outcome appears that seems unreachable or unattainable. To understand what it truly means we need look no further than what Brian said post race when asked what it meant to him and Sue.

Visibly emotional with his arm around Mark Duclos, Brian emotionally stated what the moment meant to them. ''Sue will never forget this, the memory will last with her forever''. ''Annie means the world to her'' as tears filled Brians eyes and his voice trembled with emotion.It was a moment we may never ever see again on a racetrack. 

We wish Brian and Sue all the best in their endeavours together. Let's hope Sue gets the chance to give her girl ''Annie'' a few more post race ice creams as her successful race career continues. The Bartons dared to dream. And the emotional win truly shows if you dream hard enough, they can come true.