JOHN Kennedy is a country Victorian car salesman, has been for most of his life. One of his cheapest sales was a 12-month-old black greyhound bitch that has become a household name in pedigrees in this country. It was Princess Diro (Black Diro-Glen Aussie) who Kennedy bred and hoped to race himself.

"I was in my early 20s and just into greyhound racing," said John, now 62. "My dad was a punter and I wanted to get into dogs. I headed down to Ararat to see Fred Homberg who was breeding a lot of dogs at the time.

"He had a litter by Nulla View-Bandalla for sale and I bought a bitch, paid $250 for her. She was the first dog I owned."

Bandalla had been a top class stayer.

Named Glen Aussie, the bitch was given to Max Tisdall to train. Glen Aussie had two race starts for Max, running fourth in a maiden at Sale (on the old track) and then a fifth at Traralgon.

"I was going into hospital at the time so I suggested John take her back," said Tisdall of Glen Aussie.

He remembers Glen Aussie as being a "beautiful bitch, great nature but only a plodder".

"But I never really got to find out," said Max. "She was only young when I had her and I could only give her those two race starts."

John Kennedy took Glen Aussie home and she came on season not long after. "Fred Booth was standing Black Diro at the time at Cranbourne and I decided to put Glen Aussie to him," he said.

Glen Aussie's entire litter was sold by Kennedy with the exception of a black bitch John kept for himself and reared to 12 months. He said he did not even follow the deeds of the rest of the litter.

He reared Princess Diro in his back yard and remembers her, and her mother, as being extremely docile.

"I had sold a car along the way to Robert Lynch and we got to talking about dogs one day and I said I had this black bitch pup at home," he said. "Lynch came and had a look at her and asked if he could buy a half share in her for $50."

Kennedy agreed.

"I was to get half of anything she won over $100."

Princess Diro, according to Kennedy, was no world beater. "But she won a qually at Warragul and another at Sale and then won three races.

"She was just a provincial dog."

Princess Diro was just two and a half when she whelped a litter of pups to Second Stage that would include the mighty Bowetzel.

"I had dogs with Peter Giles by this time," said John. "Lynch had sold all the pups from Princess Diro's litter but I got one and another from her second litter."

Glen Aussie, in the meantime, produced a second litter, this time by Giles' former smart Melbourne stayer Darcay.

"She had six pups in the litter and five of them won including a dog called Darla Gold who won 25 races," said John. "I had kept him for myself but eventually sold him to a friend.

"I'd sold the other five from the litter to Noel Rodda for $100 in total. Rodda had raced Alpine Emblem the litter brother to Bowetzel."

John Kennedy is still racing greyhounds today and owns Petite Mamselle (Carlisle Jack-Holly's Deb) a high class stayer in WA and a National Distance finalist. One of the in-breedings in Petite Mamselle's pedigree is to Bowetzel.

EVEN to this day, Robert Dore (or Bobby as he likes to be called), scratches his head when he sees the name Princess Diro among the pedigrees of the rich and famous in greyhound racing.

Bobby helped start the Traralgon track in Victoria. He was the club's initial vice-president and he's been breeding and racing great greyhounds for many decades.

Now retired, he was a hairdresser in Traralgon for much of his life. Around the 1970s one of his customers was Robert Lynch.

"He was a good few years older than me and I had known him for some time," said Bobby of Lynch.

"He'd been a cyclist in his younger days but in the 70s decided to get a couple of greyhounds."

One would be a Black Diro-Glen Aussie bitch he would call Princess Diro. No one would have guessed when Princess Diro was among the also-rans in Grade 5 distance events around Traralgon and Sale that she would become a broodbitch legend.

Her dynasty is so dominant today it is impossible to imagine greyhound racing without her impact.

Bobby Dore remembers Princess Diro well.

"She had a near side wrist problem that affected the way she walked," he said.

Dore reasons that could have been behind her moderate racetrack performances, but can never be sure. "She was not a bitch you took a great deal of notice of," he said.

Bobby reckons Lynch could do what some people might think as strange things when it came to training Princess Diro.

"I remember he trialled her over the distance after the last race at Traralgon one night and argued with us that the clock was wrong. He thought she had gone better than the time shown," said Bobby.

"So the next morning, around 6.30, I'm told he took her to a trial track at Moe and she went around again."

But Lynch got Princess Diro to win three races, a 500m and 730m at Traralgon and a 622m at Sale. She had plenty of racing, mostly over long distances.

Dore even has a race book for April 15, 1976 when Princess Diro was engaged in a 730m Grade 5 at Traralgon. Her form read:

7th Traralgon 20-1 beaten 12 lengths

6th Traralgon 15-1 beaten 15.5 lengths

8th Sale 20-1 beaten 15 lengths

7th Traralgon 20-1 beaten 23 lengths

7th Sale 20-1 beaten 17 lengths

Hardly the stuff of champions and hardly what you would call broodbitch material, but by then Princess Diro had already produced a litter of pups to Second Stage.

Robert Lynch had approached Bobby Dore to take Princess Diro as a broodbitch. Dore declined.

"I had some outstanding race bitches at the time, like Noteworthy, and was content with them," said Bobby. "But Robert put Princess Diro to Second Stage because I was putting a couple of my bitches to him at the same time."

Dore even has a greyhound sale catalogue from June 22, 1975 at the Dandenong Selling Complex which has some of the pups by Second Stage-Princess Diro included.

"I remember Kevin Dagg who was running the sale was a bit short on entries so I suggested he give Lynch a ring and from that he got three of that litter, including two dogs," said Bobby.

"The two dogs from Princess Diro were sold for $250 and $200 and they turned out to be Bowetzel and Alpine Emblem. I'm not sure which pup was sold for what."

Alpine Emblem went on to be a multiple city winner, but Bowetzel became the superstar sprinter of his time winning the Champion of Champions Sprint at the Gabba among a host of top class performances.

Not long after that Bobby Dore headed to the US to live but has been back home for the past eight years and amazingly is now breeding with bitches that trace directly to Princess Diro.

With the success of Bowetzel, Lynch had a broodbitch goldmine on his hands.

He approached then leading studmaster and trainer Kevin Richards to take Princess Diro for her breeding career.

"We got her after she had produced Bowetzel and she lived with my family until she died as a 13-year-old," said Richards. "In fact, she became the pet of my eldest daughter Jemima."

Richards describes Princess Diro as "a lovely big black bitch". She had raced at 29kgs during her career.

"She had a great life with us at Blue Gums," he said.

For Richards, Princess Diro had litters to Lively Band in 1978, Satan's Legend in 1979 and Tangaloa in 1980 and again in 1981. Her litter to Second Stage that produced Bowetzel was whelped in 1974 and Princess Diro came back to racing after that.

To Satan's Legend she produced Shining Light who would become Warragul greyhound of the year.

"She was a very, very fast bitch, but a bugger. She had a couple of satisfactory trials. She did win a race at Olympic and another at Sandown," Richards said of Shining Light.

"She was absolutely brilliant early. She could get eight in front when she raced on a city track, but held on to win only twice."

Richards describes Shining Light as "a nice bitch who took a long time to break in". "She was iffy. The whole line was iffy, but I bred with Shining Light because she was so fast and I wanted that brilliant pace," he said.

Shining Light would produce Centrefire who was a top class race bitch for Richards.

"She was very good and she was also genuine," he said. "I looked after her a bit because I wanted her as a future broodbitch. She was just under being in the really top grade."

Centrefire was from Shining Light's 1987 litter to Richards' by then champion sire Chariot Supreme which also produced top flight galloper Pure Talent.

A Chariot Supreme-Shining Light litter in 1984 had produced champion Shining Chariot, Chariot Of Light, Chariot Power, Supa Dupa and Chariot's Desire who would also become a fine broodbitch, and Chariot Of Gods who would go to NZ to stand at stud.

Chariot's Desire would become dam of Voodoo Lady a broodbitch gem for Helen and Michael Ivers.

Richards, as would be expected, got to know this line inside out.

"The bitches were mostly a bit skunky but that didn't worry me because I had a lot of success with that sort of bitch. Mostly they didn't exert themselves on the track and left it for breeding later on," he said.

"But the dogs in the line all fired. They were the racers."

When Richards put Centrefire to New Tears she produced Light Of Fire winner of the Melbourne Cup, Silver Chief and Traralgon Cup and greyhound of the year in Victoria.

Centrefire was an exception to the damline. "She wasn't iffy, and she was a good race bitch," Richards said.

Centrefire's litter sister Starlite Spirit would produced champion stayer Keon Star.

Princess Diro is an extremely interesting broodbitch.

While she was not particularly in-bred, her most famous producing daughter Shining Light was in-bred three times to Venetian Rose (third dam of Temlee) twice through Satan's Legend her sire and once through Princess Diro through her sire Black Diro a son of Venetian Court.

It is also interesting that her famous son Bowetzel had huge in-breeding to females. He was a relatively successful sire with Kid Scandal etc, but his real worth was as a broodbitch sire with greats like Highly Blessed, Spread Eagled, Eureka Man, Jurassic Vapour, Fair Sentence, Malawi's Prince, Hua, New Wish etc etc.

Bowetzel had doubles of such influential broodbitches as Gorgeous Babe, Brenda Gay and Blue Linen.

Maybe that accounts for why the double-up today of Shining Chariot and his sister Centrefire is such a great cross.

It is noteworthy to understand that Bowetzel carries in-breeding to the littermates Gemdelina (in Second Stage) and her brother Magic Babe and sister Early Jet (Rocket Jet-Gorgeous Babe).

He also carries four crosses of the famous broodbitch Blue Linen (three through her son Fine Linen and one through his sister Yululla... this is the double-up behind Black Top). Blue Linen was in-bred to the half brothers Peter Limes and Andrew Hawk.

It is noteworthy to understand that Shining Light carried a double-up of the famed Victorian sire Venetian Court, but her sire Satan's Legend also had his sister Venetian Babe in his sireline.

There is a double-up of the famous imported broodbitch Tapestry, through her daughters Woburn Lass in Gold Grotto's damline, and she is the third dam of Black Diro sire of Princess Diro.

Amazingly, there is even further in-breeding in Shining Light in the fact she has the relatively insignificant male Darkie Bobs in the immediate damline of Satan's Legend.

Darkie Bobs is a litter brother to Brenda's Babe the grandsire of Venetian Court.

Combining Bowetzel and Shining Light in a pedigree brings in an absolute saturation of some of the greatest broodbitch names this country has seen.

There are Venetian Rose four times, Gorgeous Babe 10 times and Brenda Gay seven times all within the first eight generations.

And by extension of this, the link between Shining Light's champion son Shining Chariot and his full sister Centrefire (Chariot Supreme-Shining Light) is just as potent.

When you consider Bowetzel is the damsire of champion sire and now huge broodbitch sire influence Malawi's Prince and the champion broodbitch Wee Sal, then you can see how easily he links up with his half sister Shining Light and her offspring Centrefire and Shining Chariot.

Some of the better quality examples of this nick working are:

Bob's One, Hypo Havoc, Brokenwood, Magnacarter, Bahama Image, Shayne's Champ, Amazing Dancer, Nimuay, Placard, Awesome Machine, Hotshow Lil, Knockabout Wok, Puzzle Prize, Modern Assassin, Most Awesome, Trewking, Collision, Dancing Habit, Pororoca, Classy Customer, Foreign Legion, Smack Wallop, Trewly Special, Black Enforcer, Estella, Miss Bekkie Lee, Maureen Shirly, Panicked, Que, Regal Brett, Winsome Min, Winsome Lesson, Betty's Angel, Immortal Love, Tamala Park, Big Moose, Cool Effort, Carnage Maker, Eluthra, Flashing Floods, Jinderra Flame, Migrate, Nitro Nori, Que Sera Sera, Run's House, Super Hornet, Tarawi Gem, Whippy's Image, Winsome History, Tasman Queen, Miss Beeslee, Dana Gretel, Sky Hazzard, Cindeen Shelby, Teaman Titch, Nitro Burst, Queen Lauryn, Vulture Street, Keeko Bale, and Queen Rose.