Warren and Sonia Kempshall hope to celebrate their second wedding anniversary with a bang this Friday with victory in the Group 3 Casino Cup.
The Northern Rivers husband-and-wide training team will have Aristotle featuring in the $25,000-to-the-winner final after he won his heat on Friday.
It would be fitting if the Kempshalls, who not only met at but were married on a greyhound track, should win the big race.
"I was living at Townsville and was at the dogs there wearing an Iluka t-shirt,'' Warren recalled.
"Sonia, who was from Yamba, next door to Iluka, happened to be at Townsville greyhounds that night and because of my shirt we got to talking.
"Our romance started from there and almost two years ago I proposed to Sonia during a Grafton greyhound meeting.
"I got down on my hands and knees on the track, she accepted, and next Friday, when the Casino Cup is run, will be our second wedding anniversary.
"Sonia has been battling cancer but we have been having a bit of success with our 10-dog team and that keeps up going.
"Aristotle is owned by Dennis Reid, who won several races at Ipswich and Albion Park with the dog before asking Sonia to take over the training.
"We have another smart greyhound called Palazzo, who was being set for the Casino Cup but who came in season, forcing us to rely only on Aristotle.
"But he did us proud in the heats and will go well if he can draw the rails in the final.''
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Local breeder-trainers Len and Evelyn Harris missed out on winning the Casino Cup several years ago with their finalist Dark And Stormy but they have a double barrel chance in this year with that greyhound's daughters.
Miss Spritely and Black Lee Bonus, daughters of Magic Sprite and Dark And Stormy, each won their heats last Friday and will tackle next Friday's 484m final.
"Our pair are not world beaters but they are handy and are in with a chance if they draw well,'' Len Harris said.
"Ideally Miss Spritely would draw box eight and Black Lee Bonus would get box one, although she can also handle an outside alley.
"Their problem is they are both small, each being only around 23.5kg.
"So if they get crowded or bumped they find it hard to recover.''
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Mr. Riley, who cost only $700 as an eight months old puppy, enhanced his strike rate to an extraordinary 42 wins from 81 starts when he scored at The Gardens on Friday.
Owned and trained by Kevin Sills of Curlewis, near Gunnedah, Mr. Riley scored over 400m at his third run from a short break.
"He had a fall at Dubbo and needed stitches in a leg cut so he had a month off,'' Sills said.
"Mr. Riley has been a wonderful greyhound, winning races from 340m to 457m and with a better than 50 per cent success rate.
"Early last year breeder David Silver had an eight months old litter available by Magic Sprite from Mulwara Park but had been unable to sell them. I selected the youngster who now races as Mr. Riley and got him for only $700.''
Mr. Riley turned four in June but is racing as well as ever and seems destined to reach the "centurion'' landmark of contesting 100 races.
