50th Anniversary: Friend Delilah’s dream season recalled

50th Anniversary: Friend Delilah’s dream season recalled

                “She’s special and she knows it.”

                It was late 1981 and Julian Dial Kennel trainer Ken Purdy was referring to his sprint sensation Friend Delilah following her dream season at Wheeling Downs.

                Friend Delilah arrived in West Virginia from Jacksonville, Fla., in the spring of 1980 – winning 23 races her first year at the Wheeling Island oval and making the final of the $45,000 City of Wheeling Stakes. The next season Delilah blossomed into one of the track’s all-time greats.

                Not only was Friend Delilah the Wheeling win champion in 1981 with 47 victories, but she shared the national win crown with J.R.’s Speck (Tucson, AZ). Delilah still holds the track record for most victories in a calendar year.

                Friend Delilah captured 10 straight races in her stellar season, a track record at the time, and she established two 5/16 track marks – 30.43 on April 9 and 30.34 on April 14 (both since broken). She was a finalist for the second straight year in the $45,000 City of Wheeling Stakes.

                In addition to her 47 victories, Friend Delilah had 12 seconds and 4 thirds in 75 starts in 1981 – a 61 percent win mark, a 77 percent quiniela finish and an 82 percent in the money record.

                Robin Reed, local greyhound historian, said Friend Delilah’s performance during the 1981 racing year was one for the ages.

                “Delilah’s 1981 season was historic. Few Wheeling greyhounds have ever come close to dominating the island oval as she did that year. She set track records for most wins in a calendar year, most consecutive wins and two speed records,” Reed said. “Plus, she made the finals of the track’s premier sprint stake race. It’s amazing to me that her 47 wins record is still intact after 33 years.”

                Friend Delilah’s game was getting out of the box and to the first turn on top.

                “She’s always had the desire and it never wore off. She’s all desire,” Purdy said. “She’s really hard to load into the starting box. She insists on entering by the front where she knows she’s coming out.”

                Friend Delilah, a December 1977 greyhound out of Opposed-My Friend Dee, was the Wheeling win champ again in 1982 with 36 victories to go along with 17 seconds and 6 thirds in 70 starts. In 214 career races at Wheeling, Delilah had 106 wins, 45 seconds and 22 thirds.

                At Jacksonville in 1979, Friend Delilah had 6 wins, 5 seconds and 6 thirds in 51 races – a track where she was baffled by the outside lure. She was Grade C when she came to Wheeling, but quickly made the climb up the ladder to Grade AA.

                In 265 career races, Friend Delilah had 112 victories, 50 seconds and 28 thirds. She was the tenth greyhound in the Sport of Queen’s history to reach 100 career wins and her 112 victories place her sixteenth on the all-time win list.

                Purdy said “she can’t win every time, nobody does,” but she made a habit of crossing the wire first.

                While most Wheeling racing fans agree DD’s Nelson was the best to ever grace the local track, Friend Delilah isn’t far behind.

                “Friend Delilah would be a solid second in the list of the best ever to race at Wheeling, in my opinion. In fact, DD’s Nelson and Friend Delilah are a clear cut top tier all to themselves when going through the most accomplished greyhounds to ever call Wheeling their home racetrack,” Reed said. “Friend Delilah had one of the most prolific careers of any greyhound to race anywhere, let alone Wheeling. She won 112 career races which still ranks her in the top 20 all-time.”

                Friend Delilah was a darling, a greyhound fans adored.

                “She epitomized the term fan favorite. In fact, she became a legend during the 1981-82 racing seasons. Back in those days, fans would make sure they were on hand for the race cards when she drew in. She was the mutual favorite in 66 of her 76 races in 1981,” Reed related. “I recall West Virginia Gov. Jay Rockefeller took a photo op with Delilah and her trainer Ken Purdy during one of his visits to Wheeling. One fan even made up a song in honor of Delilah. Near the end of her great career, fans gave her a standing ovation when she won her much anticipated victory No. 100 in the summer of 1982. That was truly a golden age for Wheeling racing and I’m glad many patrons still have memories of what a great greyhound she was.”

(Contributing to this column was Robin Reed, local greyhound historian).