Buying a dog for only $600 from the Daily Telegraph's classified advertisements represented Kim and Andrew Mulrine's unorthodox entry into greyhound racing.
But over 30 years later the Mulrines are entrenched in the sport and currently training potentially their best ever team.
Kim, Andrew and son Patrick, who is even more passionate about greyhound racing than his parents, train a dozen greyhounds on 30 acres at Collector, between Goulburn and Canberra.
While every trainer experiences setbacks during their careers, not many could be worse than the disaster the Mulrine family encountered a decade ago.
"We moved from Tahmoor to Collector 10 years back but two years later a fire tore through our place and we lost everything, including two of our greyhounds,'' an emotional Kim recalled.
"After the fire we shifted to Gunning but weren't happy there and moved back to Collector and re-built, and have been there ever since.''
Kim and Andrew were 20-something newlyweds when they made their first social visit to Wentworth Park and became friendly with a greyhound owner-trainer.
"We met a lady who had a handy greyhound called Early McGrath and through her we became interested in the sport," Kim said. "We paid $600 for Vista Brava, who was by the 1975 Vic Peters Classic winner Alpha Brava.
"We were living at Baulkham Hills, with Andrew being the proprietor of a tyre service business while I was working in a dress shop.
"Vista Brava won first-up for us and then won again at Bulli when he was a $41 chance.
"Naturally we thought 'how easy is this?' and it wasn't long before we relocated to rural Tahmoor so we could own and train more greyhounds."
The move proved to be a wise decision for the Mulrines.
"That was a turning point because a neighbour there was John McDonald, " Kim said. "He had won the 1982 Brisbane Cup and 1983 Richmond Derby with PETER GLIDER and had trained the 1980 Paws Of Thunder winner Glider's Son, later named 1981 NSW Greyhound of the Year.
"We got on famously with John and worked for him on a part-time basis while he was training top notchers like the 1986 Ladies Bracelet winner Camden's Ghost and the Harold Park top grader Rowie's Glider.
"He taught us a lot, including how to check greyhounds for injuries.
"John was ahead of his time because back then most trainers just walked their dogs, but he believed in free galloping in roomy paddocks.
"He was a qualified engineer and invented a walking machine but mostly preferred letting his dogs run free to keep fit.
"We adopted many of his ideas and now have a four-acre galloping paddock for our dogs as well as sprint lanes and a dam where they love to have a swim.
''Nowadays most trainers give greyhounds their first look at a track like Wentworth Park by hand-slipping them from the winning post.
"But John was dead against that, he insisted that before racing at Wenty his dogs needed to trial over the full 520 metres, beginning from the starting boxes.
"He always said that dogs might get a bit tired in their first trial but it would prove more beneficial than simply slipping them post-to-post.
"John was a keen judge because in 1990 Andrew and I trained our first WP winner, Enchanted April, and he forecast she would give us a metropolitan success.
"Sadly he died four months before Enchanted April fulfilled his prediction."
The Mulrines have gone on to enjoy plenty of notable success in the sport with their own greyhounds.
"Best greyhound we have trained is Mean Marilyn, who had 20 wins and 26 placings from 76 starts between 2003 and 2006," Kim said. "She is still bouncing around at home despite being nearly 14 years old.
"More recently we have had success with Dazza's Kebab, Patrick Dean, named after our son, and with Meditate, who contested 71 races from 2012 to 2014 for 16 wins and 17 placings.
"Sugar Hit Johnny, who has won three of six starts and No Holding Back, a winner of four from seven races, are among the most promising of our current team but we also have an opinion of Dicaprio, who has won 13 of 27 starts and King Gibbo, who is injured at present but who has won six from 27 appearances.''
Kim Mulrine ranks Dapto as her favourite track and, while she admits to perhaps being slightly biased, rates the late John McDonald's former champion Camden's Ghost as the best greyhound she has seen.
