Training greyhounds was in Sharon Grey's blood

However, Sharon openly admits that when she and her husband Tony put a lead on their first greyhound, they "really had no clue".

In was back in the 1980s and long-time greyhound participant Manfred Warkotz, known for a plethora of dogs carrying the Canadian prefix, gifted Sharon and Tony a greyhound called Canadian Craft.

"We were living at Blue Haven on the Central Coast and Manfred was up there and he gave us a giveaway called Canadian Craft," Sharon explained.

"So we got this girl and we started walking the legs off her and trying to find out as much as we could, and we really had no clue.

"My grandfather actually had dogs.

"He trained dogs out at Fairfield when he came back from the war, so it was kind of in my blood I guess but I hadn't got into it at all at that stage," Sharon said.

"Tony was friends with Chris Foley [another experienced participant] who was based at Terrigal, and Tony tried to get as much info out of him as he could.

"So we mucked around, and decided to give her her first start for us," Sharon said.

"Remembering Tony and I had never put a rug on a dog or anything, so we took her out to Mudgee, and... she won.

"And that was the start of it all. From then on we got right into the sport.

"The kennels grew, we moved to Dubbo and we continued on. Tony started breaking in dogs and we had dogs coming in and out everywhere.

"Then we had a family, and Tony was training all the dogs, and then as our kids got older, I took to the training ranks, and Tony went to work," Sharon said with a laugh.

"That's pretty much the story. All from that one giveaway."

The Greys also had a stint at Appin before heading to the Mid North Coast and settling at Killabakh, about 25km north of Taree.

It was there that Sharon went from participant to administrator.

She became involved with the local club, and would eventually work her way right up to the vice presidency.

"What inspired me 100 per cent was the amount of people who wanted to come and race up here," she explained.

"I kind of made it a bit of a goal to get TAB racing at Taree, and eventually we did. Another goal was to get the grass [track] up."

Taree received TAB status and held their first historic TAB meeting in June 2020.

"That first meeting was a proud moment for all of us up here, myself and the committee," Sharon said.

"It was the pinnacle."

The Mid North Coast will soon have a brand new track to race at with the multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art facility at Taree nearing completion.

"Every time I go to any track these days, as far down as Wentworth Park and Grafton, and even up at Albion Park, people just want to talk about how good the new track will be.

"It's going to be a track for everybody and it's really generated interest. We'll get a lot of people come to race here I'm sure of it."

It's been a few years since Canadian Craft came into her life, and during that time Sharon has seen the growth of women in the greyhound racing industry and is right behind celebrating them all today on International Women's Day.

"It's great to see the amount of women involved and the amount of women who have success, from participants right through to those at a club level as well.

"It's funny, I only said to Leanne Grimwood recently at The Gardens, we were in a race where all but one of the dogs was being handled by a woman."

Sharon has no hesitation naming Ada Mary as the best greyhound she has had in the kennel.

She won the Sydney Cup, a Summer Cup and the Newcastle Cup, and was narrowly run down in the inaugural running of the Group 2 Topgun Stayers invitational event at The Meadows.

"If the race had been 720m instead of 725m, she would have won and we would have been $75,000 richer, but Sweet It Is just ran her down," Sharon recalled.

"We were all there on the night and we still say now it was as good as winning.

"It was just such a big thrill to be in that race. I still get goosebumps talking about it."

This article was produced as part of an ACM partnership with Greyhound Racing NSW.