There’s certainly no sleeping in for Kevin Finn, another of the good guys from Warrnambool who makes regular trips over to Mount Gambier – chauffeured by daughter Marita “Midge” Byron – to race his sole greyhound at Tara Raceway.

According to Finn, who turns 80 next month, he’s up at 4.30 on the dot every morning to walk his one greyhound – currently Tamborine Girl, a daughter of Lightning Frank and Rixy Ya Pest.

“Generally I’m out walking for about an hour with her,” he said. “And I’m a one-dog trainer by necessity given I have only two kennels with the other one housing the lawn mower.

“I’ve been doing the early morning walks now for 15 years and at that time of the day I don’t encounter too many distractions. At 7 a.m., though, I do go back to bed for a couple of hours. Then I find I’m right for the rest of the day.”

Tamborine Girl found her way into Finn’s kennel as a giveaway after she had copped a 28 days suspension for a loss of concentration in a race at Warrnambool.

“With the intention of racing her at Mount Gambier she passed a satisfactory trial at Tara Raceway in blinkers, the idea being that hopefully she might keep her mind on the job.

“Anyway, she didn’t look to do anything wrong in her races and even won a couple at Mount Gambier last year. So at the end of the year I once again ran her in a satisfactory trial, this time to have the blinkers removed.”

And at the Mount Gambier Greyhound Racing Club’s opening meeting of this year on January 4 Tamborine Girl led all the way over 305 metres when defeating Arrow Bar Peanut in 17.93 seconds.

Boasting a 55 year involvement in greyhound racing, Finn’s initial interest came about when living opposite the old Warrnambool track at Botanic Park where he later won a couple of races with Kevlor Boy.

“My best dog ever would have been Miss Kouta, a daughter of Dashing Eagle and Artful, who won 14 races. She was raced by a syndicate of five – all mad Carlton supporters.”

Finn spent the last 25 years of his working life at Nestle. He also spent 13 years, twice a week, on a voluntary basis at the Warrnambool trials.

And while these days he is a one-dog trainer there was a time when he was a little more involved – a local newspaper reporting in April 1989:

“The Finn kennel made the long trip to Horsham on Monday, April 11 when he led in a winning treble with his sprinters Indiana Raider, Garpete Park and Our Shiralee.

“Returning to Warrnambool on the Thursday night, punters rallied to send Garpete Park to the boxes a solid favourite in a 450 metre grade 5.

“Beginning smartly from the red box, Garpete Park outsped her rivals to lead all the way and bring up the kennel’s fourth win of the week.”

And then, of course there’s Finn’s wife of 59 years, Lorraine.

Last year at the Sandown Park Women in Racing night she won the Marg Thomas Award for the most outstanding female contribution to the sport.

At the time Warrnambool Greyhound Racing Club manager Craig Monigatti had said Lorraine was a special person to him and the club.

“She’s so reliable and you just know that what she’s taking care of in the shop is going to be organised and done. She doesn’t seek the limelight but now it’s her turn to shine.”