A third hip operation has forced Margaret Greer to stop breeding greyhounds but the 68-year-old Londonderry trainer shows no signs of reducing her visits to the racetrack.
Greer, currently training six members of a litter by Magic Sprite from Watta Harmony along with Lasseter's Reef, owned by renowned FORBES breeder Barbara Judd, had starters at Bathurst last Monday, at Richmond Tuesday, Bulli Wednesday and Wentworth Park on Friday.
Her present team is made up of Lasseter's Reef, winner of eight races, and members of her bitch Watta Harmony's February, 2013 litter to Magic Sprite which have won 27 races.
Watta Chord, has won eight races, Watta Specter six, Watta Barghest five and Watta Pixie four, with Watta Sign and Watta Mischief so far annexing two wins apiece.
Their dam Watta Harmony, who won eight races, is a litter sister to Watta Whisper, who retired after winning 48 and being placed 35 times in 104 starts when trained by Ruth Matic on Greer's behalf.
Greer epitomises all that is good about greyhound racing as she was unable to train Watta Whisper due to 14 "retired'' pet racers whose presence meant she had no room for the dog who became one of her best sprinters.
"There were nine pups in Watta Whisper's litter and with all the retirees at home I couldn't keep them all," she said. "When Watta Whisper grew into a big dog who was hard to handle Ruth Matic agreed to train him for me.
"Another good litter I bred, whelped in March 2004, won over 100 races, among them Watta Trooper and the aptly named Watta Double who each won for me on the same night at Wentworth Park.
"I couldn't do all this travelling without the support of my partner Glen Jones, who takes care of the kennels while I'm away, and of Robert Vines, who accompanies me to the race meetings."
Greer said she still loved being around good mates on the racing circuit.
"The camaraderie of greyhound folk really hit home when I took a team to Victoria for the Warrnambool Puppy Classic in late April," she said.
"We broke down during the 12 hours trip but Victorian owner Terry Kingcott, who races many of Sydney trainer Anthony Azzopardi's greyhounds, rescued us just outside of Ballarat.
"Because of the breakdown we were struggling to be at Warrnambool for kennelling so I phoned their steward from the centre of town to get directions to the track.
"I was told that because it was only a few minutes to the close of kennels I should grab my two best chances and run to the kennels when I arrived, because the other six would have to be scratched.
"I knew nobody at Warrnambool but when I arrived there were six kennel staff and two local trainers waiting to grab my weight cards and greyhounds to rush the dogs through the kennelling procedure.''
Margaret Greer has been "going to the dogs'' for over 60 years, having attended her early meetings as a six-year-old to watch her father Len Greer's greyhounds in action at Young and the long-defunct Cootamundra circuit.
"In those days children under 18 were not allowed to go to greyhound meetings but dad would put me under a blanket on the back seat of his car to get me into the track,'' she recalled.
"At Young and Cootamundra you could park by the fence on the back straight so once inside I sat in the car and watched dad's greyhounds compete.''
Greer, a life member of the GBOTA's City/Parramatta branch and a recipient of a distinguished service award for more than two decades of volunteer work for that association, rates Golden Ambition as her all-time best greyhound.
"Golden Ambition was a front-running stayer who beat the Victorian champion Bold Trease in the 1987 Metro Toyota Cup at Melbourne's OLYMPIC PARK, where the trophy was a brand new Toyota car,'' Greer said.
"But a little Toyota was not much good for transporting greyhounds so I immediately traded it in for a dog friendly panel van!''
As a 15-year-old Margaret Greer was a champion ten pin bowler and while a teenager represented Australia in an international competition in Singapore.
But her family background prevailed and in 1975 she bought her first dog, paying $350 for a three-month-old bitch.
Named Romaro's Triumph and trained by Carol Murray, that bitch won 22 races including a semi-final of the Harold Park Ladies Bracelet and the 1977 Tweed Heads Galaxy final at Border Park.
It wasn't long before Greer took up the lead and collar herself with one of her most successful sprinters being Barby Wal, winner of an amazing 40 short course sprints.
Due to a string of successful weekly forays to the Lithgow track Margaret Greer became known as "the queen of Lithgow'' and the western districts course remains her favourite circuit.
And while she has seen all the champions of the past five decades, she plumps for current superstar Fernando Bale as the best she has seen.
