Terra Torra (pictured), widely tipped to win Tuesday night's Group 2 Lismore Workers Club Cup after drawing box one, was a lucky purchase for owner-trainer Ryan Newstead and his father Billy.
Winner of last month's Group 3 Casino Cup from the same draw, Terra Torra will take her earnings to just on $93,000 if she can enhance her already marvellous strike rate of 17 wins from 33 starts in Tuesday’s feature race.
“My cousin is successful Northern Rivers breeder Charlie Northfield, and early in 2015 we visited his property to look at his greyhounds,” Billy Newstead recalled.
“Charlie pointed out a three months old litter whelped by Kingsbrae Sam and remarked that one of the pups was really annoying him. He said we could buy her if we wanted to so we agreed to take her, and she turned out to be Terra Torra.
“Charlie had tagged her as "terror'' because of her pestering antics so that's how her racing name came about.”
The Newstead family have a long history in Northern Rivers greyhound racing, with Billy's uncle Peter having won the 1993 Casino Cup with Dolmio Grin.
And Peter, who died four years ago aged 96, was involved in the breeding of Happy Beaver, the maternal grandsire of Zoom Top, widely considered the sport's all-time greatest.
Billy Newstead is the grandson of Charlie “Pop” Northfield, who won the 1946 Ballina and Casino Cups witrh Bonall's Return and won trained Stratheden Rock for a shock win over the mighty Zoom Top at Lismore in 1969.
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One of Terra Torra's toughest rivals in the Lismore Cup is Snug, who posted the fastest first sectional in leading throughout to win her heat last Tuesday.
But while Snug is trained in Queensland by Darren Russell, her trainer is quick to point out that he is a “Balmain boy”.
Russell headed to Queensland 22 years ago but as a 16-year-old would earn pocket money exercising greyhounds alongside his Balmain neighbour, Bobby Riley.
Riley, who had trained the outstanding Harold Park greyhounds Market Row and Probing, began preparing a greyhound named Piper's Play for a race at PENRITH.
