Current president Jack Primmer.
A packed out Dapto Dogs meeting back in the day.
Charlie Keys (left) and Bill Dwyer.
This 1961 photo shows the re-opening of the grass track.
GREYHOUND RACING
From hot dog seller to the top dog, Charlie Keys has done it all at the Dapto greyhounds.
The 27-year president's affinity with the club stretches back to when he hurried across from his apprentice butcher job to sell a few hot dogs after the last race.
Son Kevin eventually added to the tradition, serving as vice-president before Charlie's grandson Shane joined the committee.
That's three generations of family involvement in the club and with any luck Charlie, closing in on his 96th birthday, might even pop in to watch Kevin race a few greyhounds tonight.
It's no ordinary occasion, mind you, with the Dapto Greyhound Racing Club celebrating its 75th anniversary.
Born out of the impatience of the Dapto Show Society's bank manager, who wanted a £600 bank debt cleared, an application for a greyhound racing licence was made in February 1936.
A year later the first meeting was staged at the Dapto Showground not long after the Great Depression had hit. The meeting offered £108 in total prizemoney.
The world-famous circuit has raced ever since and now thrives with a vibrant annual Puppy Auction and three Group races throughout the year, including the Puppy Classic, Megastar and Dapto Maiden.
"It's the best it's ever been," Dapto Greyhound Racing Club president Jack Primmer said of the current set-up.
"Prizemoney is up and we own everything now and it's about the only showground left in the country that is owned by the town and not the council."
Central to a lot of that success has been long-serving administrators Charlie Keys and Bill Dwyer, the former of which has been surrounded by pups all his life.
Both will have races named after them on the 10-race card tonight.
"Dad's involvement in greyhound racing goes back to when he was a kid on a dairy farm," recalled Charlie's son Kevin. "He used to rear pups for local greyhound identities. If he reared two pups he got one and he used to sell one for his pocket money.
"Whoever owned the pups would take their pick and Dad would sell the other one."
On the track the Keys family has had a fair bit of success too, with Grand Deal's win in the 1996 Silver Collar a highlight.
Kevin's wife Margaret will box four chances tonight.
They'll be at the dogs as always. They wouldn't have it any other way.
