Peter Freney is a high school physical education teacher who races greyhounds as a hobby and on Friday night he has a great chance of winning his second Ladbrokes Future Stars final.
Freney owned the 2019 Ladbrokes Future Stars winner Drink Shoeys and now races Drink Twisties, who has qualified for Friday night's $15,000 to the winner 2025 Maitland final.
Drink Twisties, who has drawn box two, won his 400m heat in 22.31 with the Ann Barnes-trained Nangar Noah setting the standard at 22.15.
When Drink Shoeys won in 2019 for Freney he clocked a sizzling 22.06, faster than the figures posted by famous final winners Good Odds Harada, Sky Wave, Zipping Kyrgios and Rinsed The Lot, who later swept all before them on the track.
Sky Wave's trainer Vic Sultana will also be chasing a second Future Stars final, as he prepared that 2017 winner for owner Vincent Sun and this year trains the Gordon Sciberras-owned 2025 finalist Miss Glamourpuss, runner-up in Nangar Noah's fastest heat.
Drink Shoeys was produced by Silver Bullet, the first greyhound Peter Freney owned, and Drink Twisties is a grand-son of that brood bitch.
"My wife's cousin Michael Hodges, a greyhound trainer, introduced me to the sport when he talked me into attending the famous Coonamble carnival around 15 years ago,'' Freney said.
"I enjoyed it so much I bought a bitch called Silver Bullet, which Michael trained for me, and when mated with Sh Avatar she produced Drink Shoeys.
"It was a very good litter which also included Unison, the only male greyhound I have ever sold, and he won 15 of 31 starts, earning $44,000.
"Ironically Silver Bullet passed away last Monday morning, just a few hours before Drink Twisties won his Future Stars heat."
"I formed a family syndicate to race greyhounds and registered the Drinks prefix several years ago after we celebrated my son Baxter, now aged 10, coming out of hospital and being declared free of cancer.
"The family currently owns five greyhounds but we are about to add more as Drink Moet, the mother of Drink Twisties, has a 12 weeks old litter sired by Aussie Infrared.
"We get our pups reared by Beverley and Roger Sandes at Jilliby and we are going there this week to take three pups from that litter, before selling another four.''
Drink Shoeys, Freney's 2019 Future Stars victor, was trained by Michelle Sultana who also prepared Drink Moet, a winner of 22 races, along with Drink Schooners, who won 19, while Drink Twisties is prepared by Dana Ivers.
