Not Today, who had "given up the ghost" at Wentworth Park, has found a new lease of life with Tamworth trainer Mark Craig and on Thursday gets her chance at the big time.
Not Today will exit box seven in the regional final of the Million Dollar Chase at her favourite track, Gunnedah, when she will oppose crack bush sprinter Turbo Cash, in box two.
Turbo Cash, who is a Wentworth Park winner and has won 10 of 24 races, boasts a personal best Gunnedah 527m time of 30.31 while Not Today, while also a Wenty winner, has not gone faster than 30.63.
But Mark Craig, trainer of Not Today, said: "Her owners Susan Smith and John Miles gave her to me early this year because she had virtually given up the ghost as far as competing at Wenty was concerned.
"She won a race there for trainer Simon Ma in December but then lost form and Susan and John thought a change of scenery might rejuvenate her.
"They sent her to me but she is going back to them when she comes in season because they intend mating her with Laurie's Flyer, their former top class sprinter who holds the WP 280m record.
"Not Today has had 14 starts for me for three wins, all at Gunnedah, but I took her back to Sydney on August 6 and she ran third in a 520m fifth grade.
"Incredibly the winner Coco Model clocked sizzling time of 29.73, so Not Today recorded 29.94, her fastest Wenty time, in getting beaten.
"Not Today is a funny little thing and in her first trial after she arrived at my place she only jogged around the track.
"But she has come good and is nicely drawn in box seven in Thursday's Gunnedah race.
"She doesn't like the rails, she has had nine starts from box one for just two placings and no wins.
"Turbo Cash will be awfully hard to beat on Thursday because he is an absolute lear jet when he gets room to move although Not Today did beat him when they met at Gunnedah late last month.''
Mark Craig, a coal miner at Boggabri, has been training as a hobby for 25 years and has six greyhounds in work.
"In my job I work a roster of five days on and five days off so that fits in perfectly with training the greyhounds,'' Craig said.
"Prizemoney is so good these days because apart from the occasional trip to Sydney to race at Wentworth Park, I don't have to travel further than two hours to the Hunter Valley to get my greyhounds checked for soreness.''
