Jenny Ruttley was "thrown in the deep end" in 2020.
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Which led her toward, despite having been around greyhound racing for 30-odd years alongside husband Michael, a string of firsts.
Michael, who is also the starter at the Tamworth Greyhound Racing Club, normally does most of the handling at meetings but when Gunnedah were given Wednesday and Thursday meetings last year it meant Jenny had to take on the responsibility.
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"Michael can't take every week off work so he said 'you're it'," Jenny recalled.
She added: "I'd never even put a rug on a dog before - not that it's hard. I'd never kennelled a dog, anything like that.
"It was all new to me but I've got some friends over there and knew they'd help."
The Manilla couple have two dogs in work at the moment - Rutland Jess and Rutland Charlie.
For Jenny, another first came with the latter in his last start on January 7.
"Charlie's coming off a win from a couple weeks ago," Jenny said.
"That was the first time I'd led a winner in at a TAB meeting. That was pretty good.
"That was the last time he raced because he hurt his foot."
If racing is on a weekend, Michael and Jenny will go to the races with the greyhounds together.
But midweek it's up to Jenny and this Thursday will be no different.
Jenny will be hoping for a repeat performance of Rutland Charlie's last run when they head to Gunnedah.
She will have both greyhounds in tow, Charlie in the sixth event, a grade 5 race over 431m, and Jess in race two, a maiden over 340m.
"They've got good boxes. Hopefully they don't get checked or anything like that and run good races," Jenny said.
Michael added: "Jess has drawn the one box so I think she has a chance. She's been drawn wide before and can get into trouble."
"Charlie's drawn well, too, and is stepping up in distance."
The Ruttleys have had both greyhounds since they were "a couple months old" which is actually later than normal for the couple.
Historically, Michael and Jenny have bred their own dogs but decided to do things differently this time around.
"Just thought I'd have a bit of a change and buy a couple," Michael said.
The Gunnedah Greyhound Racing Club hosts an 11-race card on Thursday afternoon. The first race is set to jump at 3.27pm.
Ben Jaffrey
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
