Tony Messina's winning treble at Richmond last Wednesday night was particularly noteworthy because the Llandillo trainer and his wife Wilma raised each of their three winners after having trained their dams.
They took out 535m races with litter sisters Little Big Town and Belle De Mars and were successful over 400m with Flying Springer.
"We trained Girl Crush, the dam of Little Big Town and Belle De Mars, for her owner Chris Ashworth and he owns the two we won with last week,'' Tony Messina said.
"Girl Crush was a smart short courser who won in 22.60sec over 400m at Richmond and also won over 280m at Wentworth Park.
"But her daughters, which we reared, can run 535m, with Little Big Town the slightly stronger of the two.
"Wilma and I also trained Bev's Charm, the mother of Flying Springer, and Bev's Charm is now a family pet.
"We have won plenty of doubles but I can't remember winning three races on one program before.''
Wilma and Tony Messina became involved with greyhounds through the unlikely path of attending Harold Park harness race meetings.
"At one stage I got the urge to buy a pacer but Wilma said 'no way' and because my cousin Adam Lancia was a successful greyhound trainer, I instead bought a greyhound pup,'' Tony said.
"A year after Wilma and I were married the pup, Splinters, won races at MOSS VALE and Goulburn, and we have had greyhounds ever since.''
xxxx
Take A Seat looked to have broken down badly when he tailed off in Aston Selena's race at Wentworth Park on July 29 but the DEAN Swain-trained greyhound should be back in action in six weeks.
"I feared the worst when he went amiss on the back straight but he did nothing worse than 'pop' a pin muscle,'' Swain said.
"It looked bad but if he had to suffer an injury that is preferable to cracking a bone in a leg so I was almost relieved when I discovered that it was a shoulder muscle tear which will heal well.''
xxxx
What a pity the Pat Parrelli trained Devine Stage missed a place in last Tuesday's Zoom Top Maiden heat at Goulburn.
It would have been fitting for Devine Stage to contest today's final, named in honour of the 1968 and 1969 NSW Greyhound Of The Year.
It is not widely known that Parrelli, who trained the 2009 Peter Mosman Classic winner Devine Road, was responsible for the naming of Zoom Top.
"I used to work at the kennels of Leah and Hec Watt, who owned and bred Zoom Top,'' Parrelli recalled.
"Hec told me he had an exceptional litter by Black Top from Busy Beaver and was especially excited about the potential of a fawn bitch he called Sweetie.
"See if you can think of an appropriate name for a future star of the track, he told me.
"That day I was on a ride-on mowing Hec and Leah's lawns and the mower had a sticker advertising the old BP Zoom fuel.
"As Sweetie was by Black Top I went inside and said to Hec, 'how about Zoom Top?'
"And when he and Leah submitted that name as their first choice it was accepted.''
