Dave Richardson's first and only previous starter in the time-honoured Pop Northfield Memorial Maiden was Sandave Jeanoel, who won the 2018 final, but he has high hopes of making it two from two after his dog Olling posted fastest time in last Thursday's heats at Casino.
Having his first start, Olling zipped over the 400m in 23.19 and looks the dog to beat in next Thursday's $10,000 to the winner Casino final.
Dave Richardson has trained a swag of winners bearing the Sandave prefix, named for he and his wife Sandra, but he had his biggest success in 2013 when he took out the group two Black Top at Ladbrokes Gardens with Billy Buzzard.
While many trainers enjoy instant success, Dave Richardson's love of the sport was a lesson in perseverance, as he took four years to train his first winner.
And that first winner, five decades ago when Dave was just 24, was Norval Lad, who he had purchased for only $100 from his breeder Mary Olling.
And his Pop Northfield finalist is part-owned by the same Mary Olling who sold Dave his first winner.
"I was able to buy Norval Lad so cheap because he could not run 500 metres but he gave me a tremendous thrill, and my first successes, when he won a 400m heat and final at Maitland.''
Pop Northfield came to the Northern Rivers area from Wollongong as a 17-year-old but became such an integral part of greyhound racing in the district that when he died in 1973, aged 73, the current race was launched in his honour.
The Pop Northfield has grown in stature ever since, while his son Billy trained one of the most famous greyhounds to come out of the region, Pretty Short.
A winner of 58 from 88 races, Pretty Short set an astonishing 15 track records.
Helen Pearce, whose bitch Wiggle On won her heat of last Thursday's Pop Northfield Memorial in 23.38, has been training for 30 years and her clients have included Billy Northfield.
"Having trained dogs for Pop's son Billy, it would mean a lot to win this race on Thursday,'' Pearce said.
"Wiggle On surprised me a bit with her heat win because I thought she might have been short of a run."
"She had been placed in each of two races at Grafton in August but then had to be spelled after coming in season.
"The Pop Northfield heat was Wiggle On's first run since coming back into work so I didn't really expect her to go as well as she did.
"She seemed to relish coming out of box eight so I would love to see her draw out there again in the final.''
The other Pop Northfield heat winners were From A Distance, who won in 23.23 for Col Graham, and Integrity Al, a 23.33 winner prepared by Rob Andrews for former GBOTA chief executive officer Allan Hilzinger.
Andrews previously trained the outstanding sprinter Integrity Mate for Hilzinger, with that greyhound winning 24 of 49 starts between 2021 and 2023 and reaching the final of the $75,000 to the winner The Thunderbolt, at Grafton.
