Hayley embraces home town support working with greyhounds

She had grown up around greyhounds, knew plenty about them, but never truly committed. She always had an exit plan and as such, she could at any time say: "it's not for me now".

But not this time.

"If you can commit to it - and let's not muck around, it is a big commitment - you can succeed. It's not rocket science," she said.

"I'd never really committed. But it's something that I'm actually genuinely good at. It's something I get. But you wouldn't do it unless you loved it.

"And think about, I can spend more time with my kids and be with my family and it's a job where you sort of get to just play with your pets all day. And then you get to go to the races. And it's better than working 17 hour days doing something like feeding cattle."

The cattle reference is when Hayley decided to try something other than greyhounds.

"I met my now ex-husband and sort of went my own way. We bought cattle trucks and we did that for a while, and travelled around to various stations up in the Northern Territory. But I have found that greyhounds are like leaving your hometown, you always come back. It's a bug that bites you and you stay bitten."

Now might be a time to introduce mum and dad - Jodie and Andy Lord, Sydney's premier trainers for the past four years, and whose greyhounds have won numerous Group races around the State including the Ladbrokes Golden Easter Egg, and the world's richest race, the Million Dollar Chase, and Hayley kept a distant eye on the success her parents were having while she was away.

She returned home and although not fully committed, she did begin working with her parents.

"Back then Canberra was racing and I remember I was still boxing dogs the day before I had my daughter. The next day, I got up, did the dogs, finished up and said I'm going to have a baby and I went and had Andi Lee.

'We went and bought a house not far from dad's and I had the kids (she also has Trixie Lee) and I don't know how my mum did it growing up. She had three kids and was doing dogs 24/7. I don't know how she did it. She is an inspiration to me."

A divorce, a job as a stock and station agent, time spent off with "little life adventures" before she came home and decided to commit to working with the greyhounds.

"Greyhounds keep me grounded. They keep you accountable and keep you committed.

"It's a huge commitment. It's seven days. I get home from a race meeting and by the time I've got all the dogs in, fed them, washed them and got them into their beds, I get to bed at three and I'm back up at 5.30am.

"My days are so tightly scheduled now. Up at 5.30am get the race dogs done, then get all the broodies (broodbitches) done, get the pups done, get back up and work the race dogs, by the time eight o'clock comes, I need to be getting kids ready for school. You need everything on time and, like I said, I don't know how my mum did it with three kids and they had a phenomenal amount of dogs back then as well.

"Both dad and mum are great. They guide me and help me whenever I need it and while I always think I don't need it, they are always there with advice for me.

"Obviously there are rewards with winning and feature races, but just watching pups you've whelped and reared, getting them to the racetrack and watching syndicates get such a thrill out of it is very satisfying, and all the friends you make along the way, that's really rewarding."

One thing Hayley has noticed as a big change in the industry, is the camaraderie among the women, who are all being celebrated today on International Women's Day.

"It's nice to see women sticking with women in the game, which I've found a lot lately, really standing by each other and having each other's back and supporting each other. It's awesome.

"I think females have a really good eye for detail and attention. Over the years there's been plenty of dogs where dad has said: you've got to go tonight because that dog will only go for a female." There's plenty of dogs in our kennel now that just respond better to a female.

"But I think it's fantastic seeing so many women in the game as opposed to 15 years ago. You'd go to the track back then and it was just male dominated and literally all your friends were males.

"Now I go to the track and I'm at the table you know, with Caitlin Brewer and, and Sarah Easey, and you've got women like Minnie Finn winning lots of races and they're all inspirational."