In August 2008, central coast greyhound trainer Andrew Schofield purchased some semen that he dearly hoped would breed a litter of champions.

He was to inseminate his bitch Supreme Instinct with semen extracted from a Victorian pure-bred greyhound called Bombastic Shiraz. In late October, Supreme Instinct whelped four puppies: one stillborn, one male and two bitches.

Illustration: michaelmucci.com

As the mother recovered from the Caesarean, Schofield reared the pups with love and care and, two years later, he left them with a colleague Ken Staines to be broken in.

In was then, on the very day that the greyhounds were registered to race, that Staines ruefully informed the trainer that his dogs were "some 30 lengths off the pace". They were slow, that is, around the track.