Young Women Future Leaders INTERNATIONAL
On March 8, 2025 we celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD).
In 2025 the IWD campaign theme is 'Accelerate Action,' how can we remove barriers, create opportunities, and move forward.
Greyhound racing in NSW is proud to acknowledge a sharp increase in female participants entering the industry.
Some of our brightest young women were recently appointed to the inaugural Young Participants’ Advisory Panel, and with the arrival IWD, we decided to not only find out a little more about each of them, but in line with the IWD 2025 Campaign, ask them what has helped accelerate their career in the industry, and what more can be done to help accelerate their careers in the industry?
Together as an industry, and alongside these fine young women, let's Accelerate Action to speed up the rate of progress worldwide.
HAYLEY SEARL
Family ties were the reason Hayley Searl and greyhound racing crossed paths, but not in the traditional way.
Hayley’s mother Donnaleah Carter received a call from her brother Shane needing help. He owned a greyhound which was ready to whelp a litter, and he was overseas with the Peace Keeping Forces.
From that first litter, Donnaleah fell in love, and, as Hayley puts it: “our empire was started.”
Home is Nowra Hill, and since she was a youngster Hayley has spent Monday nights at the local racetrack, The Pinebowl.
When teenage years hit, Hayley approached Club Manager Glenn
Midson asking for work. The following week she started.
Hayley began collecting race bibs and checking IDs but soon moved up the ladder. Kennel Supervisor Lorraine Currey was her mentor teaching her “so much”, and when Lorraine left the role this year, Hayley stepped into her big shoes.
Apart from being an active participant with her owner/trainer’s licence, Hayley is also on the committee at Nowra, and last year when the track closed for a number of weeks for work to be completed, Hayley “had this itch” and asked if there were any roles available at Dapto. There was, and Hayley now works there as a starter and a swabber.
What has helped you accelerate in your career in the industry?
From the start it was sort of just jump in and go, and then it was all the positive influences I have had. If I didn't have my mum and I didn't have close family, friends and connections, I wouldn't be where I am.
Lorraine Currey was a really big part of it. She taught me everything, was a real role model for me, and she was really like the rock in my learning from the industry side of things.
She brought me up to the kennels, she taught me how to lock away swabs, taught me how to swab, and she ended up passing on her legacy as Kennel Supervisor over to me.
From the training side of things, it was really my mum, my uncle, and then (trainer) Phil Goodsell as well. They were the three who always took the time to teach me things.
“I'm always looking to help out and do things differently.”
What would help you accelerate in your career in the industry?
Something I think could help me excel is honestly the positive influences that I'm still getting, like the ones I have at the Nowra club.
If you have a question, you can ask people, and I feel like always having those people there with so much experience, and people who are so open to share their experiences and advice, is something that could really help me going forward now.
Now I've started to open my horizons, and I'm always looking to help out and do things differently, so perhaps more training and more opportunities at other tracks would be beneficial.
I'm so proud of being selected to the Young Participants Advisory Panel and I’m very excited about what we can offer.
We are a very diverse group, and there will be a lot of different ideas, different opinions, and everyone putting their ideas forward. That's how we will get results.
HOLLY TAYLOR
Holly Taylor is a third generation greyhound racing participant. Holly’s grandfather is well-known trainer Ron Ulrick and her mother Karen Ulrick, has herself been a very successful trainer for many years.
Holly and her brother Chad have been seen around tracks handling greyhounds for their mother and grandfather for more than a decade now, but it has only been “the last couple of years” that she has become more heavily involved.
At 18, when Holly was able to attain her owner/trainer’s licence, and her first success as a trainer in her own right was in May last year when the aptly named Gift For Holly saluted at Casino.
Holly’s application for the Panel was one of the standouts as she not only listed her vast experience but outlined some proposed initiatives.
As she said of the Young Participants Advisory Panel: “Together, we can pave the way for a new era of participation and pride in greyhound racing.”
“I was lucky that I had my mum as a female role model in the industry.”
What has helped you accelerate in your career in the industry?
For me family has been a key thing in my growth in the industry, working with my mum and also my granddad. I was about eight when I first started when we lived at Urunga, but I didn't really get heavily involved until nearly two years ago, when we moved up here near Casino.
We only had a small team of dogs, a maximum of five when we were at Urunga, and now we’ve got 21 in the kennels, so it has been sort of new to me in a way up here.
I was lucky that I had my mum as a female role model in the industry. I have done a lot of things that she has already done, but I’ve also found it good interacting with other female participants.
There’s more and more women getting involved in the sport, and sometimes you walk out onto the track handling a dog, and you look around and everyone in that race is female.
Up at Albion Park recently I noticed that every single person, even the starter and the staff were all females too.
So, I think there's definitely more females becoming involved, and some younger ones coming through as well, and that’s one thing we need to work on with the Advisory Panel, getting more of them involved.
What would help you accelerate in your career in the industry?
I'd say a way to benefit people like myself is to definitely get more young people involved in our sport. To me the best way to really help people of my age, is to get the younger ones coming through with us. At the moment we are the youngest ones, we are that next generation which the sport needs, but we will need another generation after us as well.
We need to lead by example and show the younger peopleparticularly females - what a great industry this is and how you can have success in it.
And if we do that, myself and every participant in the sport will benefit.
KARLY ROWE KARA
With her bloodline, it was a fait accompli that Karly would find her way into greyhound racing.
Not only is her father Andrew heavily involved in the sport, but her grandfather Ernie was a trainer, and his brother, Karly’s great uncle, Cyril, was on the GBOTA Board and a one-time President for the Bulli club. In fact, their feature event is named in his honour – the Ladbrokes Cyril Rowe Bulli Gold Cup.
While never pushed into the industry, she has always had a love of animals, and industry entry was inevitable.
As a 20-year-old looking for a job, Karly found one, working in the kennels at Wentworth Park and she
soon became a “jack of all trades.” She says starting there was “probably one of the best decisions that I've ever made”.
Karly has worked in numerous roles including as a swab official, kennel supervisor, starter, FinishLynx officer, and vet assistant at venues such as Wentworth Park, Goulburn, Nowra, Dapto and Bulli.
In 2017, she made history when she became the first female to start races at our premier track, Wentworth Park.
Karly wants to contribute her knowledge and skills in the industry to help make the future better for trainers, staff and importantly the greyhounds involved.
“There is nothing wrong with putting old ways and new ways together.”
What has helped you accelerate in your career in the industry?
I obviously had great support from my family but I showed a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of love and passion for the industry, and I think that it really helped with showing that I was ready to just do whatever was needed to be done.
Once I started in the industry it didn't really matter what gender you were, you were there to get the job done.
What is great is the encouragement you get and that’s really needed, and I think this panel is going to be amazing, not just for the women in the industry, but for everyone.
There's obviously a lot of successful women in the sport at the moment and that is encouraging and you feed off that. You see female trainers winning the big cups, and Minnie Finn won Trainer of the Year at the awards recently, and it was just such a powerful moment to be there and witness that. It was a “this is for the girls” moment and was a great accomplishment on her part.
It wasn’t that long ago I would be at a track and look around and I’d be one of the few females there. That’s not the case now.
What would help you accelerate in your career in the industry?
This advisory panel for young people will be beneficial. I think just in general, with anything, just giving everyone an easier opportunity, and letting more doors open for them. It's like any workplace, you may have the qualifications but they want someone experienced. Let’s make it easier for everyone to get the experience … to truly learn.
I sit with a lot of the older trainers and I feed off their ideas and their input and thoughts as well. Yes, we are pushing to support the next generation, but we don’t want to make it feel like we are pushing out the old generation. We want them to feel included and important as well.
A lot of my ideas I will be bringing will be based around advice and suggestions the older trainers have given. There is nothing wrong with putting old ways and new ways together.
It's an honour for me to be involved in this panel because this is another opportunity for me to grow within the industry and grow within myself, and at the same time hopefully helping the sport I love.
KEELY HOGG
Keely Hogg’s pathway into the greyhound industry was not the traditional one. It wasn’t a branch on her family tree, nor did a friend or neighbour with greyhounds introduce her to the sport.
Keely was working at a greyhound rescue organisation, and saw a job advertised at Wentworth Park. She applied, got the job, worked as a kennel assistant and vet’s assistant, then worked at Richmond where she met her fiancé Isaac Hall, who she now has dogs with, and, as they say in the classics … the rest is history.
Transitioning from working at a rescue group with mostly people opposed to the industry, is quite a leap into the sport, but Keely’s boyfriend at the time told her to go in with an open mind, and that she was “just looking after more dogs”. She did and “fell in love with the racing” and saw a totally different side than what she had been told about and that the participants actually did love and treat their animals so well.
After almost a decade in the sport, Keely has now obtained her owner/trainer’s licence and with Isaac she has three dogs, and, in between running two business’ and planning a wedding, she is looking to make an impact on the Young Participants Advisory Panel particularly nurturing young women who have an interest in the racing community.
“I have received so much advice along the way and I am so grateful for that.”
What has helped you accelerate in your career in the industry?
As I said I have no family involved in the sport, and my way in was really based around needing a job and the opportunity to work with these beautiful animals was too good to refuse.
But once I was involved, it was amazing to see the way the people involved love their dogs, and how open and willing to help you they are. I have received so much advice along the way and I am so grateful for that.
And you don’t need to look too far to see successful women in the industry, and as a young female participant, that’s inspiring and encouraging.
What would help you accelerate in your career in the industry?
I think we just need to keep up the education for those in the industry and also those who might want to become a part of the industry.
I can testify from my personal experience that there is a lot of negativity and noise around all the supposed bad things in greyhound racing, we need to educate people better about the truth and work on the awareness about our sport and the positivity and perhaps that is through social media and its younger audience.
I think if we do that it will benefit not just the younger participants, but the industry as a whole.
I also want to be able to encourage other younger people, and potentially other younger females as well, to get involved and when they see what the sport has to offer, I know we will get many, many more people wanting to be a part of it.
TAYLAH WHEILDON
For Taylah Whieldon it was the common tale. Girl meets boy while working on a cattle feedlot in Queensland. Girl and boy fall for each other. Girl heads home with boy to the meet his family. Girl becomes ensconced in the greyhound industry.
The boy - who is now her fiancé - is Peter Northfield, eldest son of Charlie and Toni Northfield, icons of the industry in the NSW Northern Rivers and the names behind the Kingsbrae Racing family.
A lot has happened in the four and half years since and that Meet the Parents’ moment.
When Charlie and Toni would take a holiday, Taylah and Peter looked after the dogs. When she voiced how much she loved the dogs, her involved grew and soon enough not only was Taylah helping Charlie and Toni with all facets of the industry, she had her owner/trainer’s licence and was putting the collar and lead on a winner – Unhinged Scotch.
With Charlie and Toni buying a motor home and intending to travel, Taylah’s involvement in the industry is about to increase.
And let’s not forget she is now a member of the inaugural Young Participants Advisory Panel where she plans to encourage others of her age and younger to be involved in the industry.
What has helped you accelerate in your career in the industry?
Obviously, all the knowledge I have been able to gain from Charlie and Toni Northfield has been crucial for me. They take the time to teach absolutely anyone anything. If you have any questions and you really want to get in have a go, they will help you. Charlie is definitely the most humble person I've ever come across, but how he does and what he does with his dogs, it's phenomenal.
Toni is someone who has been in the industry for quite a long time, and she's the biggest advocate for females.
Both Charlie and Toni are wonderful people willing to teach anyone who wants to learn.
They just want to see more youth in the industry, and they were the ones who pushed me into applying for the youth panel. I was a bit shy, and said I don't think I know enough, but they said we need young voices, we need young people, especially females, and Toni said we need some female advocates to really push it out there that it's a fantastic industry, and I definitely wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't for Toni and Charlie.
Being so keen to learn as well has been a massive thing. I've been lucky enough to not only have Charlie and Toni, but I've met some great people like Dave Irwin and Deb Winters and they have really taken me under their wings to mentor me as well, which has been amazing.
What would help you accelerate in your career in the industry?
Getting more people of my generation involved but also, I want to see a lot more education available for people like myself. Having that education to be able to further my knowledge as well as anybody else's, would be a massive thing.
We have to make it easily accessible so people know what they're doing and actually want to have a go at greyhounds instead of going: “Oh crap. I don't really know what to do.”
I also think shining more positivity on the sport. Someone like The
Greyhound Girl is such a good advocate for the sport. She really puts it out there in such a positive way. I think if we get on board with that, get the young people interested, followed by education, it will stay a blooming industry.
A lot of the younger generation don't want to come forward because they just keep getting told it's a dying sport. If we get the young voices telling them it’s not, I think there'll be a lot of people come out of the woodwork wanting to get involved.