It was fitting that Kevin Johnson's Young Kev should win the opening race at Saturday's Taree meeting as it is highly unlikely any trainer has won more races on the circuit now known as Bbet Park.
Johnson, who admits to being "over 80 years old'' trains his now small team on 240 acres at Wherrol Flat, 36km from Taree.
His bitch Bloss Sannette's 537m Taree track record of 30.47, set when she won by 11 lengths on September 25, 2010, is probably the sport's longest standing record.
"She won 18 from 35 races and broke the previous record in March, 2010, before breaking her own record six months later,'' Johnson recalled.
"All my life my wife Yvonne and I bred and raced our own greyhounds but after I cared for her when she was very sick for a long time, I gave all our brood bitches away.
"Yvonne passed away four years ago and I was 'in the gutter' because we had been together for 57 years.
"But finally I decided to get back into the sport and bought Young Kev, who is about to turn two, at breaking-in stage.
"He is no world beater but will win races and I have a couple of pups soon to be educated as well.
"Taree has always been my favourite track and my bitch Miss West held the 392m record there for 12 years.
"Bonnie Rikasso, another bitch I trained, held the Wauchope 722m record just over 30 years ago and she was a great bitch who won over distances ranging from 365m to 722m.
"Yvonne and I rarely came to Sydney because I loved to bet and won a lot of money on a bitch called Rose Sannette, who won 30 of 60 starts from 2012 to 2015.
"She was a great punting dog because she was a brilliant beginner.
"It was nothing for me to drive nine hours to trial a dog at TOOWOOMBA, which was a fantastic track, and go back three weeks later and win plenty on the punt.
"But I used to take dogs like Rose Sannette and Sannette Girl all over the east coast to race, I would go anywhere I could get a decent bet on my greyhounds.''
Johnson has often trained four winners on an eight or 10 event card, and while most of those achievements have been made on the old Taree track, he reckons the current course is "superb.''
"Full credit to everyone involved in the Bbet Park TAB course, it is a beautifully maintained grass track, there are none better,'' Johnson said.
Nitroglycerine stopped the clock at a smart 26.43 at his Bulli debut last Saturday but won't be contesting the February 13 heats of the group 2 472m event.
"He still has a few fifth grades left in him so I'm not getting too carried away with Saturday's win, although it was a good effort because he had not seen the track,'' Flanagan said.
"Jason Mackay, who is my mentor, reckons Nitroglycerine has three lengths improvement in him on that basis.''
Flanagan, manager of the Heddon Greta Hotel, has a "hot'' trio in work which are members of a litter his former good bitch Explosive Madame whelped to Barcia Bale.
Nitroglycerine's litter sister Explosive Venom has won four from seven starts while her brother Captain Muddy has been victorious in three out of nine races.
"I plan to take Explosive Venom and Captain Muddy to Wentworth Park tomorrow night for post-to-post slips to get them ready for their first races in town,'' Flanagan said.
