Not Without won his Maiden Final at Richmond on Wednesday in a sensational 29.34 but trainer Jane Carruthers and her husband John aren't getting carried away just yet.
"He has a long way to go, when he wins a Golden Easter Egg I will label him a good dog,'' John Carruthers said.
No wonder as Jane and John raced the legendary champion Rapid Journey, arguably the greatest greyhound of the 1990s.
Rapid Journey won 33 of his 54 races with his last-to-first performance to take out the 1998 National Sprint Championship at Perth's Cannington Central considered the finest of his string of magnificent victories.
Those successes included the 1998 Adelaide Cup, Melbourne Cup, Topgun and Golden Easter Egg, the race John Carruthers considers will be the "benchmark" for Not Without being declared a top notcher.
"The name comes from the old days when people would say 'how are you travelling' and if you were going okay you might answer 'not without' meaning you were nowhere near broke,'' John Carruthers said.
Not Without's win by a dozen lengths on Wednesday, in time just .23sec outside the track record set by Coin Model on March 19 last year, followed his six lengths demolition of a Maiden heat lineup at Richmond a week earlier, when he clocked a slick 29.60.
Not Without is by Barcia Bale from the Carruthers family's bitch Angel Glow, who has well and truly joined the ranks of "supermums'' following the success of her April, 2022 litter.
After whelping this, her first and so far only litter, Angel Glow returned to the racetrack and won four races at Wentworth Park posting smart times of 29.75 and 29.78.
John Carruthers recalled: "At her first Wenty trial after she had her Barcia Bale pups Angel Glow clocked 29.35 over 520m.
"Leading trainer Minnie Finn was next in line to trial and when Angel Glow produced those figures she was astounded when I told her it was a bitch who was coming back after having a litter of pups.
"I think that trial flattened Angel Glow a little because it took her a while to find that sort of form again, although she did go on to win a few at Wenty, including a Free-For-All.
"She had eight pups to Barcia Bale but Jane and I didn't breed from her when she next came in season.
"I'm 76 next month so we are both getting on a bit and felt we needed to concentrate on racing Angel Glow's first litter rather than having to whelp and rear another lot of pups.
"Since Not Without's start to his career we almost certainly could have got big money for a second lot of youngsters but that's in hindsight of course.
"We didn't sell any of Angel Glow's Barcia Bale litter and a sister to Not Without won up the straight at Richmond recently at her first start.''
Angel Glow in action at Wentworth Park
Caitlyn Keeping, the 2018 Group 2 Black Top winner, has three of her offspring in Friday night's heats of the Ladbrokes National Futurity at Wentworth Park but their trainer Shayne Stiff insists the quickest in the litter won a maiden at Temora on Wednesday.
Futurity hopefuls Candice Keeping (heat one), Cindy Keeping (heat two) and Camilla Keeping (heat three) have won five of their 12 Wentworth Park races but Zali Keeping, who broke through at Temora for her first win after being placed in each of four previous starts, is even quicker according to Stiff.
"I'm not saying she is the best because the other three are real good race bitches, but Zali Keeping is definitely the fastest,'' Stiff said.
"Whether she goes on with it from here is another matter.''
