“People think I’m nuts coming all the way down here to Mount Gambier with one dog,” said Tea Tree Gully hobby trainer Ashleigh Kay. “But, realistically, you have to place them where you think they can win.”

And the office worker, involved with greyhounds for the past five years, was back at Tara Raceway with Techno Kelli who had found her way into Kay’s kennels in August 2023 after former trainer Vadim Roz relocated to Dubbo.

The November 2021 daughter of Hard Style Rico and Shanlyn Haven, after a 305 metre win at the track in November of that year for Kay, was chasing her second local win after drawing box four in last Sunday’s Metal Worx Stake (305 m).

A red hot favourite at $1.45, and much to the relief of her trainer, Techno Kelli never looked in any danger of defeat when leading all the way for a 6¼ length win over Lady Bombshell in a personal best time of 17.63 seconds.

This was a win – the black bitch’s 11th for her trainer – that marked some sort of milestone for the 35-year-old Kay.

“Collectively, Techno Kelli’s win was my fifth in 2025 and so far this is my most successful year,” she said. “Included are three races this year at Angle Park over 342 metres. Actually, her win a couple of weeks ago was my first Angle Park city success,” she said.

Making up the five winners was another former Roz dog in Yarramundi Coco, a daughter of Hard Style Rico and Gemma Nismo, who was successful at Angle Park in a time-graded event over 342 metres back in May.

With Techno Kelli being an out and out short course greyhound, Kay said she was now starting to run out of grades at her more accessible tracks of Angle Park, Gawler and Murray Bridge.

“Given that she’s not far away from turning four years of age, more trips to Mount Gambier could be on the cards given that the club is now programming regular 305 metre races for the older dogs.”

Kay’s first-ever winner had been back on March 24, 2022 with a greyhound called Oogway – the son of Fernando Bale and Panda Bale successful at a Tara Raceway Thursday time-graded meeting.

She had previously made the long trip with Oogway from Adelaide suburbia to Mount Gambier on five occasions in pursuit of her first win.

“My first winner had been a while coming but it was certainly nice for it to have been at Mount Gambier. I love the track and the people there are really friendly,” she had said.

Meanwhile, later in the day Magic Mack, out of the money at his only five starts over 512 metres, finally broke through for his first win at that distance in the Cadillac Racing Grade Five Series final.

An $11 chance, Magic Mack led all the way from box one for Glencoe owner-trainer Edna Fennell. On the line the son of Feral Franky and Perseverance had three-quarters of a length to spare over Dirty Dash in a more than handy time of 30.10 seconds.

And it was a win that would have brought back memories for the Fennell family given that husband Dean had trained Perseverance, a daughter of Dyna Double One x Miss Freelove, throughout her career for 16 wins at Mount Gambier.

Bred locally by Karen Price, two of the Perseverance pups went the way of Edna Fennell who then reared the pair – later to race as Magic Mack (so named because he was built like a truck) and Magic Poppy.

Broken-in at Koroit by Peter Byrne, Fennell said initially Magic Mack struggled to come to terms with the breaking-in regime. But the penny soon dropped and he was doing everything right.

“He’s a great kennel dog and works really well in the paddock,” Fennell said. “But given that he had been struggling a bit over the 512 metre journey, recently I decided on a change of training tactics for him.

“I don’t know whether it was the fact that I worked him much harder leading up to last week’s 512 metre race that saw him run out the distance better. Anyway, whatever the reason he ended up running a personal best time and defeating a pretty handy field.”

And as the year approaches the half-way mark, the battle intensifies for Mount Greyhound of the Year honours after wins last Sunday by Come On Kilkenny (35 points), High Cube 31 and last year’s joint winner Mister Cadillac 31. On 30 points is Wind Whiskers who ran third last Sunday.