Friday's Bidgee Cup final fulfilled a life-long ambition for local owner-breeders Helen and Michael Finn when they not only won the Wagga track's biggest race for the first time but also landed the quinella.
Tiggerlong Amy, trained at Dapto by Kevin Keys, scored by three-quarters of a length from her litter sister Tiggerlong Ruby, trained by Helen Finn.
Helen and Michael own the Cup quinella duo and bred them from a mating of Feral Franky with their great producer Tiggerlong Dot.
An earlier mating of Tiggerlong Dot to Dyna Double One resulted in Tiggerlong Tonk, the best greyhound the Finns have raced.
Now at stud, Tiggerlong Tonk, who was trained in Victoria by Correy Grenfell, scored 42 wins and 35 placings from 94 starts and earned over $766,000.
"His first puppies are about to hit the racetrack,'' Michael Finn said.
"Because he was racing during the height of the covid epidemic, Helen and I did not get to see many of his races.
"That made Friday's Bidgee Cup win really special, not only because we had run second in several finals but also because we were able to be there and see two bitches we had bred battle out the finish.''
Michael Finn, 66, got his first greyhound when he was 14, pointing out: "My father Tom trained greyhounds so it was only natural I got into the sport.
"But until I retired three years ago my occupation was as a high pressure cleaner and the dogs were a hobby.
"These days Helen and I only have six in work while on our property we also have half a dozen pups and a few retired pet greyhounds.''
Had one or both failed to qualify for the Bidgee Cup final, the plan was to take them to Dapto for the heats of the Ladbrokes Middle Distance Championship.
Both obviously qualified which ruled out Dapto, until storms hit the South Coast last Thursday, forcing the meeting to be abandoned.
Fresh nominations were called for the Middle Distance heats and both Tiggerlong Amy and Tiggerlong Ruby were nominated. Amy has drawn box two in heat two, while her sister is in box three in heat one.
This year's group one National Futurity winner Wyndra All Class has not raced since August but is close to resuming and is trialling "better than ever" according to her owner Brian Barton.
Wyndra All Class, whose 15 wins so far have netted over $209,000, was named the NSW GBOTA Greyhound of the Year at last Saturday's annual members awards night.
Celebrating a well earned win as the GBOTA TAB Trainer of the Year was Andrew Bell, making something of a sweetener for the trainer who until now has endured a year he would probably rather forget.
Dennis Barnes lost no time making Grafton his "second home" by training a winning treble there on Sunday.
Barnes is building a holiday home at Grafton to facilitate racing his dogs there as well as from his long-established successful kennels at ORANGE.
Litter sister and brother Nangar Gypsy and Nangar Express won over 450m at Grafton in 25.30 and 25.34 while Nangar Nellie, another member of the Dennis and Ann Barnes' team, scored in 25.39.
Barnes won this year's group finals of the Black Top and the Peter Mosman Opal with Nangar Lucy but will continue to sell if the price is right.
With an impressive record of eight wins and 16 placings from 32 starts, Royal Nangar is expected to become a kennelmate of Nangar Jim with trainer Joe McFadyen.
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