Coronavirus has devastated the world and John Lawson, who won Monday's feature 565m race at Maitland with Ned's Chance, knows a thing or two about viruses.
As a 13-year-old Lawson, now 64, was a star athlete at Muswellbrook High School when he was struck down by a virus in his spinal cord.
"I was paralysed from the chest down and spent a year in a wheelchair,'' Lawson said.
"Finally I was able to get around with a brace on my leg but I was advised to walk as much as possible.
"That was how I became involved with greyhounds, because Tommy Binskin, a family friend whose brother Jack was a famous harness racing trainer and driver at that time, gave me a dog.
"Although my grandfather Vic Brown had raced greyhounds at Muswellbrook I would never have started training dogs if regular exercise had not been recommended by the doctors.
"In 1973 I traiNed my first winner when Aberdonian won at Muswellbrook and then a mate and I bought two pups whelped by the top class sprinter Lady Devo.
"One of those pups, Kalyara Magic, won the Chief Havoc Memorial at Newcastle's Beaumont Park where she was a star, and she produced Kalyara Duchess who was my first Wentworth Park winner and who reached the final of the 1993 Ladies Bracelet group race won by Amy's Doll.
"Kalyara is an Aboriginal word meaning 'quick' and I had a lot of success with dogs carrying that prefix.
"Kalyara Duchess was the mother of Kalyara Belle who in turn produced Future Fund, the best dog I have had.
"He won 40 races and ran 40 placings and was an incredibly good money-spinner.
"Future Fund won the Wentworth Park Country Challenge and ran down the 2009 Golden Easter Egg winner Dana Beatrice in a race at Wenty, although to be fair I think she had traiNed off a bit by then.
"I'm proud of the fact that many owner-trainer-breeders, like Jody and Michael Manuel and Craig Chappelow have had much of their success with offspring of greyhounds from my dam line.''
John Lawson has just five greyhounds in work at Aberdeen, in the upper Hunter Valley, with Ned's Chance his top performer.
"I bought him a year ago from Jack Roy at Cootamundra, paying $15,000 for him,'' Lawson recalled.
"Ned's Chance had only been racing over short courses so I told Jack I would not pay that much unless I could see the dog trial satisfactorily over 520m.
"Jack agreed and took him to Bathurst where I pledged to buy the dog if he broke 30.20 and when he clocked a bit under 30.10 I bought him.
"Ned's Chance can run like the wind when he is on the lure and while he is a funny dog he is going really well at present.
"When he finished fourth to Good Juan, Zest To Excel and Blue Moon Rising over 565m at Maitland on March 19 I reckon he would have won if he had not run into the leaders near the home turn.
"And in his two starts since he has won over 600m at LADBROKES GARDENS and now in 32.06 over 565m at Maitland on Monday.''
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