When Allan Woods, who trained a winning treble at LADBROKES GARDENS on Friday, attended Wentworth Park to watch the 2010 Golden Easter Egg, he had no intention of being anything but a spectator.
But he left the track as an owner and is now entrenched in the sport, winning 400m races at The Gardens with Mr Beethoven and Happy Dash and over 515m with Convoluted, who will make her Wentworth Park debut on Wednesday night.
"I was living on a house block at Forster when I travelled to Wentworth Park to watch Cosmic Rumble win the 2010 Golden Easter Egg and while there got on the drink with some friends,'' Woods recalled.
"There was a charity puppy auction during the night and with a few drinks under my belt decided it might be a good idea to buy a greyhound.
"My $2000 bid secured the puppy, sired by El Galo, and I've been involved in the sport ever since.
"The auction pup raced as Deltalicious and she won first up for me at The Gardens in February, 2012, going on to win four of just 18 starts before producing a litter which included winners.
"It wasn't long before I had to find a property to accommodate our growing lineup of greyhounds and my wife Karen and I are now on 13 acres at Nabiac, near Taree.
"We need that much space because we have over 60 greyhounds, including a lot of puppies.
"Friday night's good meeting was not the first time we have won a treble, we secured a couple of them a year or so back.
"And Deltalicious, that youngster that got us into the sport, is still at home, mostly asleep on the lounge.''
Hunter Valley trainer-breeders Leanne and Geoff Grimwood have been enjoying a tremendous run of success with their brilliant front-runner Aston Zodiac, and their wonderful run looks set to continue thanks to their former smart racer and now fine producer Elusive Zesta.
She won 12 races and $33,000 for the GrimWoods between 2014 and 2016 and became the dam of their 2020 Woy Woy Poultry Gosford Cup winner Kid Candle.
Amazing Marilyn, just 23 months old, led throughout and covered the 515m in 29.47, just .31sec outside the course record set by Golden Easter Egg winner Zipping Bailey in July, 2018.
Golden Zesta, a litter brother to Amazing Marilyn, is raced and trained by the GrimWoods and has won three from four races while another from the litter, Wilson Place, has won four of eight races for Martin Bowe.
"We have another young litter from Elusive Zesta at home and I reckon we are going to have a lot of fun with her offspring for quite a while,'' Geoff Grimwood said.
