Deep Impact, who was educated at the young age of 10 months, rewarded owner Dennis Reid for an audacious breeding plan by being the fastest qualifier in today's semi-finals of the Charlie "Pop" Northfield Maiden Classic at Casino.
Trained by Reid's son Mathew, Deep Impact began brilliantly and led throughout, covering the 411m in a blistering 23.24.
Deep Impact's time was a mere .13sec outside the track record, held by last year's Group 2 Lismore Cup winner Tripum.
After the race Dennis Reid revealed he had organised the mating of Deep Impact's dam Kim Special, a daughter of Give Me Five, with stud dog Bekim Bale.
"I contacted the fellow who owned Kim Special and promised him I would buy some of her pups providing he put her to Bekim Bale,'' Reid recalled.
"I figured Kim Special's offspring would have a double cross of the great Brett Lee so there would be a strong likelihood they would be able to run.
"The litter was born in March last year and Deep Impact, and his unraced sister, are very quick.
"Deep Impact was not jumping smartly until Mathew did some box work with him and it might have worked because he came out running last Friday.''
Dennis Reid, a former leading trainer in Sydney and the Northern Rivers area, has quit the that side of the sport to concentrate on his other hobby of pigeon racing.
"I have 107 racing birds and 15 pairs of breeding stock to worry about so Mathew trains the greyhounds these days,'' Reid said.
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Greyhound courier Peter SIMPSON trained two of the Northfield heat winners, scoring with siblings Jonesy and Weekend Boss.
SIMPSON's pair posted the second and third fastest times, with Jonesy clocking 23.40 and Weekend Boss recording 23.56.
"They both want to use a bit of the track so if they reach Friday week's final I am hoping for wide draws with them,'' SIMPSON said.
"But I expect them to be even better over longer than 411m and am quietly confident I will get to Wentworth Park and win 520m races with them.
"Jonesy is named after my father-in-law, Don Jones, who passed away last year.
"But as a puppy the dog's kennel name was Donald, after the American president, because from when he was tiny he always insisted on doing things his way.
"So when it came time to give him a racing name, Jonesy, honouring my wife's father, seemed logical.
"Jonesy is faster than Weekend Boss but while he used to beat his brother in trials by five lengths, there is now only a length between them.''
The time-honoured "Pop'' Northfield Maiden Classic is staged in honour of the legendary Northern Rivers trainer, who won the 1946 Ballina and Casino Cups with Bonall's Return.
Northfield brought prestige to the region when his greyhound Stratheden Rock scored an upset win over Australia's best, the Sydney-trained Zoom Top, in a long-distance race at Lismore in 1969.
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Sydney mortgage broker Michael Eberand, a hobby greyhound trainer, faces a busy week with his greyhound Barking Bad to contest Friday's heats of the Group 2 Geelong Cup.
Eberand's Ebby Chance, who notched her 17th win at Wentworth Park on Saturday night, competed in Tuesday night's Group 2 Ladbrokes Lismore Cup.
Barking Bad is an old hand at travelling as he was runner-up to Adelaide Cup winner Raw Ability in a Warrnambool Classic semi-final in April and has raced at Sandown.
A winner of 19 races, Barking Bad is already a big race winner, having annexed The Collerson at the Wentworth Park Golden Easter Egg carnival this year following his victory in this year's Group 2 Woy Woy Poultry Gold Cup at Gosford.
