Colin Graham's sibling greyhounds King Of Aces, Loving Smile and Distant Flash have qualified for the time honoured Fair Dinkum Build Grafton Maiden Classic final and their draws give each an outstanding winning chance.
Heats were staged over 450m at Grafton last Sunday with the final, worth $15,000 to the winner, to be held on Wednesday, July 12.
Fastest heat winner was the Chris Spratt-trained Heidi McGraw, who led all the way in 25.32, while Brett May's Ezra Man wasn't headed in winning his heat in 25.48.
King Of Aces took 25.72 to win while his sister Loving Smile was slowest heat winner in 25.82, with their litter brother Distant Flash reaching the final after being runner-up, beaten just under two lengths, behind Eztra Man.
But King Of Aces' win was undoubtedly the most impressive performance on the card, as he was last to leave the boxes and was badly checked at the first turn.
"Before the heats King Of Aces had been trialling a bit quicker than Loving Smile and Distant Flash,'' Graham said.
"He had been running a bit over 25.30 in 450m hit-outs but his run home has been as fast as 5.50, which is the sort of time top graders clock.
"None of my trio has a lot of early speed but I'm very happy with the way they have drawn, with Distant Flash in box one, Loving Smile in two and King Of Aces in box seven.
"I think the wide draw might suit King Of Aces, while I was very happy with Loving Smile's performance because she came from a long way back after finding trouble early.''
Graham and his wife Marilyn breed and train their greyhounds on 2ha at Wiangaree, 14km north of Kyogle.
"Marilyn is a retired nurse and I'm a retired railway worker,'' Graham said.
"I got my first greyhound when I was 17 and I'm nearly 70 and while I haven't had any champions I did win a Flying Amy Classic with Elusive Desire in 2015.
"We have bred some fast ones and when we mated Miss Hanify to Collision she produced Hanify's Impact, who was owned by our son Andy while he also owned Seek And Destroy, who was from Miss Hanify's litter to Surf Lorian.
"Andy sold Hanify's Impact for $47,000 before she was beaten in a close finish by Surgeon in the 2008 Melbourne Cup and she went on to win 20 races.
"He also parted with Seek And Destroy for $40,000 and with Anthony Azzopardi as his trainer he won 18 races including the group 1 Association Cup in 2011.
"I bought Distant Star, the dam of my Grafton Classic finalists, and her litter sister Inspire Us, for $5000 each after they had won a few races in Victoria.
"Inspire Us won 23 races and she has an eight month old litter by Flying Ricciardo.
"Marilyn and I had thrown the whelping box away, we didn't intend to breed any more dogs, but because Inspire Us and Distant Star, who won 17, were so successful on the track, we restored the whelping box.
"Because Distant Star's current good litter are by Hooked On Scotch, I'll definitely be putting her sister Inspire Us to that dog for her next mating.''
Not many new owners win a race at Wentworth Park with their first dog, but Forbes primary school teacher Michael Sheather not only did that last Saturday night but will be watching his greyhound contest Saturday night's group 1 Peter Mosman Opal.
Sheather is the owner of Bella Una, who led throughout from box five to win first-up at WP in her heat of the Opal, clocking a smart 29.73 for the 520m.
Only heat winner to go faster was Miss Mcgraw, who clocked 29.63, and who, like Bella Una, is trained by Sheather's neighbour at Forbes, Jack Smith.
"I had been following the dogs for a while when I approached Jack Smith and asked him to steer me in the direction of buying a puppy,'' Sheather said.
"He sent me to Sandra Spratt, the daughter of another leading trainer, Dennis Barnes, and she and her husband Chris sold me the puppy which races as Bella Una for $5000.
"My wife Jacqui and I have five sons, aged between one and nine, so we couldn't get to Wenty last Saturday to see Bella Una's win.
"But school holidays have come along at the right time for all of us, se we plan to be there on Saturday night cheering Bella Una home.''
