Memories came flooding back for Portland trainer Peter Barnes after his dog Three Thirty One took out Saturday's Lithgow Golden Muzzle final.
Three Thirty One, who had been fastest qualifier with a 29.32 heat win, did not begin as cleanly on Saturday but led from the first turn and drew away to win in 29.31.
Barnes who had won the race in 2014 with Majestic Odessa, said: "I grew up across the creek from the Lithgow dog track.
"And I have a long family history attachment to the track.
"My great grandfather was the Lithgow club's grader, while two of my grandfathers were involved there, one as a bookmaker and the other as the course curator.
"I still have Lithgow race books dating back to 1932 so it meant a lot to me to win that race on Saturday.
"But I had some anxious moments because after his heat win, Three Thirty One pulled up with a sore calf muscle.
"I worked on it non-stop all week and even on Friday, the day before the race, I started second guessing myself as to whether the dog would be 100 per cent and able to start in the final.
"But on the day he was all right and while I was worried when Hundred Degrees, who is very strong, was sitting in second spot behind Three Thirty One on the back straight, my bloke went to the line well.
"I will now probably give him a Monday race at Bathurst before taking him back to Wentworth Park for a Saturday night meeting.''
Although its meetings are non-TAB, Lithgow is an integral part of Australian greyhound racing as the first race meeting was held there in April, 1928, just a year after mechanical lure racing was introduced at Harold Park, Glebe, then known as Epping Raceway.
Unidentified, who came from fifth on the back straight to win Saturday's GBOTA Maiden Final at Wentworth Park, was produced by an unraced and virtually unknown bitch but is bred in the purple.
Trained by Justin King for owner-breeder Kerry Drynan, Unidentified is by Barcia Bale from Steal The Glory.
"Steal The Glory is out of Chica Destacada and is a full sister to champion stayer Poco Dorado,'' Drynan explained.
"I owned Steal The Glory but didn't race her because she refused to chase.
"Actually that is a bit unfair, let's just say she could not be broken in so I didn't persevere with her as a race bitch and because of her pedigree, decided to keep her for breeding.
"She whelped to Barcia Bale in October, 2019, but when it was time for Unidentified and his sisters Vera and Remembrance to start racing, I found myself with no room in my kennels.
"So I asked Justin King to train them and he took them on, which was decent of him because at that stage they were not showing anything brilliant.
"Justin has done a great job with them because Unidentified won on Saturday, Vera has been runner-up in two from four WP starts and Remembrance made the pace when second in 30.10 at Wenty last Wednesday.''
