Jockey Dan Griffin inducted into Gold Coast Turf Club Hall of Fame

RECORD-breaking jockey Dan Griffin is one of four new members inducted into the Gold Coast Turf Club Hall of Fame.

Jim Hook and Rollo 'Penny' Whitfield.

RECORD-breaking jockey Dan Griffin was one of four new members inducted into the Gold Coast Turf Club Hall of Fame last night.

Griffin, who eclipsed fellow Hall Of Fame member Ken Russell’s record when he won a sixth straight Gold Coast jockeys premiership in 2011-12, joined late jockey Rollo “Penny’’ Whitfield, late trainer Jimmy Hook and three-time Prime Minister’s Cup winner Avitt as the four new inductees unveiled at the club’s annual awards ceremony last night.

Griffin’s induction is timely with the 34-year-old hinting at a permanent return to Gold Coast racing last week.

Griffin, who now lives on the Sunshine Coast but is still dubbed the King of The Coast, has been trying desperately to crack it in the Brisbane metropolitan ranks since returning from a career-threatening knee injury late last year.

He told the Bulletin on Saturday that he planned to again ride regularly on the Coast.

New GCTC Hall of Fame members Jim Hook (left) and Rollo “Penny’’ Whitfield.

The man known by many as the original King of The Coast, Whitfield, won four straight Gold Coast premierships in the mid-1970s and his partnership with fellow inductee Hook was memorable with the pair pulling off many plunges in their day. Whitfield died in 1998.

Hook, a three-time Coast premiership winner, took out his training licence in 1946, the year racing was re-established on the Gold Coast after World War II.

Before his death late last year, Hook recalled training racehorses was quite different back then.

“It was a pretty bad track at Southport, kangaroos and cows were always a problem,” he once said.

“The roos were often a nuisance in the early morning training runs. You would come around the turn and into the straight and there eating the grass in front of you would be the roos.”

Hook’s top horses included Raywell and Keep Safe, who won five consecutive races at one time including the Easter and Labour Day Cups in 1982.

The other inductee last night was New Zealand racehorse Avitt, the only horse to win the Prime Minister’s Cup three consecutive times. He won from 1982-84.

Avitt was the fifth horse inducted into the Hall of Fame after three-time Group 1 winner Stylish Century, inaugural Magic Millions winner Snippets, 1989 Caulfield Cup winner Cole Diesel and five-time Group 1 winner Shoot Out.

GCTC chairman Brett Cook paid tribute to the new Hall Of Fame members.

“Hall of Fame membership is a hard-earned honour and it is highly appropriate that the new inductees will have their names recorded in perpetuity at the club,” he said.

John Morrisey was also last night officially recognised for claiming his fifth Gold Coast trainers premiership last season, while Luke Dittman received his trophies for claiming both the senior and apprentice jockeys premierships.

Victorian mare Srikandi was crowned GCTC Horse Of The Year for her wins in the Group 2 Victory Stakes and Group 1 Tattersall’s Tiara on the Coast last season.

The Trevor Bailey-trained Avalanches beat Speedy Sam in the horse premiership award on a countback, while Sir Moments’ open class victory on November 15 was judged the standout individual performance last season, excluding ­feature races.