Suzette Turner is listed as the trainer of Dam Time and Lucifer's Dream, heat winners who will contest Wednesday's 320m Richmond Maiden final, but she insists the real trainer is her 12-year-old grand-daughter Isabella Turner.
When they won their maiden heats at Richmond last Wednesday, Dam Time and Lucifer's Dream were part of a winning treble for Suzette, who also enjoyed success over 400m with Bella's Bullet.
"I have held a trainer's licence for 20 years and last week's was my first treble,'' Suzette Turner said.
"But all the credit goes to Isabella, because she does most of the work with our team of 13 greyhounds.
"She helps break them in and when they come home she gives them their hydro baths and laser treatments, and now has her own handler's licence.
"Isabella fell in love with this breed when we were living in the NSW Northern Rivers area and the people next door had greyhounds.
"Two years back Isabella had bred a litter of dachshunds and through selling them, she was able to buy her first greyhound, a six months old puppy.
"That pup now races as Bella's Bullet, who was part of our winning treble last week and who has won five races and earned over $10,000.'
Topping Suzette Turner's treble last week was the remarkable effort of Tamworth trainer Melanie Mabbott, who landed four winners at Muswellbrook on Thursday.
Mabbott, who has 25 greyhounds in work, went full-time four years ago after eight years as a hobby trainer.
"My husband Anthony and I own two bakeries in Tamworth so between running those businesses and training a fairly large team we are kept pretty busy,'' Mabbott said.
"Like a lot of people I grew up with greyhounds as my father Richard Edmunds trained them and while I took a break to have our two children, who are now 14 and 17, I was probably always going to get back into the sport.
"Because there is no track at Tamworth these days I do a lot of travelling, racing a lot at Muswellbrook but also at Dubbo, Maitland and Richmond while I plan to bring dogs to the new Taree course in the near future.''
