I WAS 11 years old when I got to have my first involvement in greyhound racing, tagging along with my dad Sean in Townsville with our first dog or two.

JOE McFADYEN: My ethos in greyhound racing is you will only be as good as the opportunities you create for yourself.

Advice for beginners: By JARROD FRY – WHEN I got to the age of 16, I had a choice to make … greyhound racing or thoroughbreds.

WELL, they say racing is in your blood and, however you look at it, it’s definitely in mine – Brad Mulvihill

IT’S been 22 years since my dad Billy, mum Cynthia, my wife Hope and I got back into greyhounds and it’s been a 22-year learning curve for all of us.

I HAVE a couple of sayings that I always relate to newcomers into greyhound racing, and even those who have been in the game for many, many years.

MY introduction into greyhound racing was as a family enterprise, when my brother George and I established a trial track at Deception Bay back in the 1970s.

I’VE been going greyhound racing since I was five, so I suppose I have some credentials to give newcomers, or anyone at all, wanting to get into the wonderful world of greyhound racing some advice on doing just that.

John Corrigan: I’M a greyhound racing tragic and have been since I was 20 when I started walking dogs for Keith Schmitzer at Taree back in 1962.

Steve Shinners: Greyhound racing is a wonderful hobby, a rewarding business, and any young person thinking of making it a career would be wise to do so.

TOMMY Lanigan is my grandfather and it was always his dream to win the Waterloo Coursing Cup, a dream he handed down to my father Gerald, and it has since come down to me.

Advice for beginners: By DOUG GLADMAN – BEFORE I venture into this article for Chase newspaper, I have to emphasise I am far from a genius trainer of greyhounds.

I ALWAYS had a passion for racing, from listening to the dogs in my bedroom in my early days to spending too much time in the local TABs with my mates.

BACK in 2000 I had a roofing business in Melbourne but had to make a career change when a couple of knee reconstructions forced a change of lifestyle.

IN the past few years, since becoming so involved in greyhound racing, I have always read with interest the Chase column about getting into this industry.

I was born and bred to be a greyhound trainer because my parents and their parents were all trainers, but having just a handful of dogs in their backyard over here in WA.

WHEN I was asked to write this article for Chase magazine I thought about the current state of greyhound racing in Australia. Greyhound racing is charging ahead and in recent years there has been a significant change in the industry.

SPEED Hump … remember that name. A son of Brother Fox and a bitch called Miss Cranky, he was my first entry into greyhound racing.

BEFORE I get into giving my insight into the ways and means of embracing greyhound racing, I have to tell a story … a story I’m a bit embarrassed to tell, but one all newcomers to the industry should take on board.

“MY father George got me into greyhound racing when I was 15 years old … and I was so reluctant to do so.”

I’M not recommending anyone follow my path into greyhound racing. That’s because it involved me slicing off four fingers on my left hand and being in a cast for nine months.