David Smith has relished the ups and coped with the downs of greyhound racing but enjoyed the sport's highs on Thursday night at Wentworth Park and at Goulburn 12 hours later.
Smith took out five of the 11 races at Wentworth Park, as the trainer of Prim And Pretty, Epic Story and Cool Story and as the owner of the Peter Rodgers-trained pair Starry Ethics and Classic Ethics.
The following day he owned and trained a winning trifecta at Goulburn when Foxtrot Ethics defeated her litter sister Shrewd Ethics with their kennelmate Disco Ethics finishing third in a 350m fifth grade.
"Thursday was certainly a special night because while I have previously trained three winners at Wentworth Park, on the night that occurred the experience was soured when my most promising greyhound broke down,'' Smith said.
"Peter Rodgers was training a bitch called Lightnin' Ethics for me and she on the way up after winning at Wenty in 29.65 and posting a sizzling first split of 5.35.
"But she broke down and had to be retired when on the verge of a possible group race career.''
Smith was a chartered accountant who had a casual interest in the sport until 1998, when, as an 18-year-old, he used his first pay packet as a chartered accountant to go towards buying a greyhound puppy he named Good Ethics.
Cool Story winning at Wentworth Park on Thursday
"I bought her from breeder Lorraine Atchison and when trained for me by Don McMillan, the leading trainer at the time, she was very successful on the track and became my foundation brood bitch,'' Smith recalled.
"Don then pre-trained a dog called Smokin' Ethics for me and when he retired from the training ranks he told me not to give him to anyone else, that he was going to be very good.
"So I became the trainer of Smokin' Ethics for his career on the track and at one stage he won six races in succession.
"Whenever I won a race I purchased something towards helping me succeed as a trainer, it could be a hydrobath one week and an ultrasound machine a few weeks later.
"The late Barry Lazzarini, a legendary trainer and 'muscle man' was a big help back then and taught me how to check dogs out for injuries.
"There really is no better feeling than winning races with a greyhound you have bred and early on I learned that the most important thing was to keep your greyhounds happy.
"In 2018, two decades after buying my first dog, I went full time into the sport.
"I have mostly trained my own although several have been prepared by my friend Peter Mantach, while Peter Rodgers, who won the 2023 Golden Easter Egg with Simply Limelight, also trains on my behalf.
"Peter is very adept at rearing puppies and several years ago when he agreed to raise youngsters for me he asked to have the right to train one if he took a particular fancy to it.''
Smith, who operates out of a nearly 5ha property at Elderslie, near Camden, experienced his biggest thrill when Super Estrella won the 2022 group one 720m Sydney Cup in Wentworth Park record time of 41.58.
He also trained Ice Cream Story, a winner of 15 races and $94,000 for north coast breeder Michael Jones, who races that bitch's offspring Epic Story and Classic Story, two of Smith's winners last Thursday night.
And Prim And Proper, the dam of Thursday's Wentworth Park maiden winner Prim And Pretty, won two dozen races and over $151,000 for Smith.
