Weffalee Lee Lee was part of a winning treble for trainer Tony Forbes at Muswellbrook on Thursday and after she contests the Whiskey Riot Fifth Grade final at Taree on Wednesday, he is planning a return to Wentworth Park with his exciting two-year-old.
On Thursday Forbes landed 336m races with Kenzie's Comet and Hard Head Red while Weffalee Lee Lee won over 431m in 24.45, just .04sec outside the course record.
Five days earlier Weffalee Lee Lee had won her 527m Whiskey Riot heat at Taree and Forbes is now comparing her with Weffalee Shield, the star of his 12-dog team.
Weffalee Shield has scored 35 wins and 50 placings from 125 races, earning nearly $146,000, but his 64-year-old trainer believes Weffalee Lee Lee has the potential to be equally successful.
"She is getting stronger all the time and I plan to get her back to Wentworth Park in a month or so,'' Forbes said.
Weffalee Lee Lee won her maiden race over 520m at Wentworth Park in 30.34 in March and led until just before the home bend, clocking early splits of 5.40 and 13.74, when fifth to Summer Quinn in a 29.70 heat of the group one Peter Mosman Opal there in June.
Tony Forbes said: "She is very smart, as good as any I have trained.
"I was helping at trial tracks from when I was 10 years old and can't remember not having a relative who didn't have a greyhound.
"My parents trained greyhounds and my uncle, Cliff Russell, who trained at Kurri Kurri, prepared over 1000 winners.
"I was a rig and crane driver before becoming a bus driver but six years ago retired to concentrate full-time on the greyhounds.
"In the 35 years I have held a trainer's licence the best I've had, apart from Weffalee Shield and Weffalee Lee Lee, would be Rollerdoor Racer and Blue Caldedonia, along with her daughter First Weffalee.''
Weffalee Lee Lee
Forbes trains in the Hunter Valley at Quorrobolong, along the Sandy Creek Road from other renowned greyhound villages Mulbring and Mount Vincent, which was where Blue Autumn, winner of the inaugural NSW Greyhound of the Year award in 1965, was trained by her owners Jean and Bert Johnson.
Royal Osti, who was backed from $41 to $6 before winning a maiden race at Wentworth Park in June, 2021, is now living the high life in the United States.
The former Ashley Dwyer-trained greyhound has become the official team mascot for the Ocean Springs High School's gridiron team, based in Mississippi.
