Kiando Florence joined a long list of successful greyhounds obtained as a giveaway when she smashed the Muswellbrook 431m record for owner-trainer Chris Edwards on Thursday.
The daughter of Aussie Infrared and Irinka Lizzy, who was a Golden Easter Egg finalist in 2019, led all the way to notch her ninth win, covering the 431m in 24.30, .11sec inside the previous record set by Pennies Forever in May, 2023.
Chris Edwards, who is based at Geurie, between Dubbo and Wellington, is a classic example of "have dog will travel" as he has already driven 110,000km this year in his bid to win races.
"Kiando Florence has just taken a long while to mature which is why she is only now hitting her peak, even though she turned two in March,'' Edwards said.
"As a giveaway she is a valuable greyhound, because irrespective of what she achieves on the racetrack, she is bred to be a good brood bitch.
"Her dam Irinka Lizzy ran second to Zipping Bailey in a heat and semi-final of the Golden Easter Egg before being unplaced to that bitch in the final.
"I'm 48 now and received a wonderful grounding in the sport through working for Wally Lutiger, a highly successful trainer who won the 2001 Summer Cup final at Wentworth Park with the outstanding stayer Yaroun Express.
"Although he won a stack of good races at Wentworth Park, Wally especially loved taking young dogs to the Dapto twilight meetings, which were not covered by the TAB and where we raced for $40 prizemoney.
"But there were eight bookmakers and Wally could set a dog for a race and have a good win on the punt.
"I had a long break from the sport but made a comeback around two-and-a-half years ago after working at different jobs, including calling the races at Alice Springs.
"Before I had a spell from training the best dogs I had were probably Beegumbah Rumba and the Temora record holder Beegumbah Burst, who won a total of 46 races a decade ago.
"I now have 22 greyhounds in my kennels and will go anywhere to win a race, it's important to go to the tracks that suits each dog, not those that are convenient for the trainer.
"But is has all been worthwhile because I am closing in on training 100 winners in 2025."
Edwards' mentor Wally Lutiger, who has been in a nursing home since the death of his wife, Evelyn, migrated to Australia from Switzerland, hardly a country renowned for racing of any description, especially greyhounds.
But Wally, who was trained as a pastry cook in Switzerland, took his first job in Australia working on the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme, near the NSW-Victorian border.
I recall Wally telling me that all he learned while working on the Snowy scheme was discovering how to bet.
"Every Saturday all the workers would go to the nearest TAB and spend the day betting on the horses, so it was from there I graduated to training greyhounds for a living,'' the much-loved old trainer told me.
