WHEN you're on a good thing... stick to it. That's a pretty good adage when it comes to breeding successful greyhounds.

Take for instance the latest staying sensation Chinatown Lad (Lilli Pilli Lad-Chinatown Babe) winner of the Group 1 Albion Park Gold Cup and the Sandown Cup and track record holder at Cannington and Devonport.

He's got a litter sister called Fallen Zorro and a couple of brothers called Arctic Silver and Avalon Chief who can run as well.

Fallen Zorro chased her brother home in the Sandown Cup and Gold Cup at Albion Park and had already set a middle distance track record at Cannington and won the Group 2 McKenna Memorial at Sandown..

Arctic Silver has already won at Hobart and Cannington, while Avalon Chief has won 14 times, at Cannington, Hobart, Devonport and Launceston.

Avalon Chief was second in the Group 1 Hobart Thousand, won the Devonport Puppy Championship and was a finalist in the Devonport Cup.

It's a pretty hot litter, bred in Tasmania by Gavin Whitney who has been racing the damline for a couple of generations now.

Gavin knows what he's doing. He's 61 and has been around greyhounds since he was 14. He trained Starlight Rebel to win 35 races and Zoom Fox won 34 races including the 1995 Launceston Cup.

With all the success of the Lilli Pilli Lad-Chinatown Babe litter, how then was it sold for $500 as pups.

Their sire Lilli Pilli Lad is much underestimated.

A full brother from a later litter to Awesome Assassin, Lilli Pilli Lad was top notch on the track and includes a track record at Devonport as a highlight of his career.

The Whitneys used him early and got a high class stayer in Atomic Jet, out of the former Queensland raced In The Groove, a daughter of Malawi's Prince and the top staying bitch Groovy Dancer.

Atomic Jet was tough. He made the final of the Mega Maiden at Wentworth Park and when switched to distance racing was classy but just under Group 1, making the finals of the Lizrene Classic, Gleeson & Tonta, The Zoom Top and Sale Cup.

In February 2002, the Whitneys whelped a litter of pups by Lilli Pilli Lad from their bitch Counter Power.

The daughter of Gun law Osti-Silver Wish won 14 races for the Whitney family.

Her dam Silver Wish had been a finalist in the Tasmanian Sprint Championship in 1995.

This is the damline of New Find the champion Victorian hurdler of the mid-1970s. Her brother New Spirit and half brother New General were also top hurdlers.

The Lilli Pilli Lad-Counter Power litter included a dog called Lillipilli Power.

He was a sprint sensation winning the 2005 Tweed Galaxy in 23.24 when in the kennel of John Galea in Victoria. He was also fourth to Whisky Assassin in the Geelong Cup.

The litter also included Baywatch Boy who won the Tasmanian Derby and was a finalist in the National Sprint.

Another brother Flying Tango won the Hobart St Leger and ran 30.23 winning at Sandown.

In May 2003, when Lillipilli Power and his brothers were 14 months old, their dam Counter Power produced a litter to US import Fortified Rush.

Among that litter was Firework Display who won a heat of the Hobart Maiden Thousand.

But also in the litter was a bitch the Whitneys named Chinatown Babe.

They thought so much of her they sent her to Victoria to be trained. She trialled sensationally at Cranbourne and Warragul as a 16 month old, so sensationally that her trainer declared him a potential champion.

Within a week the bitch was crippled with a broken foot and unable to race.

The Whitneys brought her home and decided to breed with her.

When Chinatown Babe came on season for the first time in September 2005, it was just three months after Lillipilli Power had brilliantly won the Tweed Galaxy.

Who else would the Whitneys decide for their bitch's first mating, but Lilli Pilli Lad.

The mating would be a virtual replica of that which produced the Galaxy winner.

Lillipilli Power carried a Rasmussen cross to the half brothers Brother Fox and Acacia Park, but he was also sire sex balanced to Temlee.

By putting Chinatown Babe to Lilli Pilli Lad, the Whitneys got exactly those crosses, plus the added bonus of the import Fortified Rush.

Fortified Rush stems from the Laurdella Fun sireline (four generations back) and this linked up perfectly with the added cross of his litter brother Waverly Supreme* in the sireline.

It was a mating destined for greatness ... at least as good as that which produced Lillipilli Power.

It became even better. And for $500 each!