'She'll certainly be looking over her': Greyhound carries on Mary's memory

Sweet as Mary - named after Brown's late wife Mary Mugavin-Brown who passed away in September 2022 - has won two of her first three starts at Warrnambool in recent weeks.

Bred by Mary's brother Noel Mugavin and trained by Woolsthorpe's Kurt Howard, Sweet as Mary dead-heated at Warrnambool on January 11 for its second win.

It was the first time Brown saw her in action.

"She won the week before, (so) I took some of the grand-kids - well they had a great night, they won a bit of money too so they were very happy," Brown told The Standard.

"The funny part about it was, we had Sweet as Mary running, and the one who dead-heated with it was Tommy from Mars - one of my grandsons is Tommy and he was there... a couple of them backed the two dead-heated runners."

The Brown family has a well known history in greyhound racing, with Mary formally training greyhounds with son Matthew, while eldest son Jonathan, a Brisbane Lions great, is among the ownership group of multiple cup winner, Alpha Zulu, who ran in The Phoenix - a $1.65 million dollar race - in December, 2023.

The connection Mary has to Sweet as Mary first began before her passing.

"Noel had two or three litters, and he said to Mary at one stage, could you rear this litter for me," Brown explained. "Mary said 'yeah'... there was six or seven of them.

"One of them was a little black dog, her name was Emily, she was Mary's favourite. She had a bit of personality.

"Low and behold, she ended up a pretty handy bitch - Sweet as Emm - who is the mother of Sweet as Mary.

"I don't know how long ago (Noel) named her (Sweet as Mary) - he wanted to name her after Mary because the fact she reared the mother.

"Mary will certainly be looking after her I think, it's funny how people's influences sort of work."

Brown was confident Mary's presence had been felt on the racing track - with Noel's greyhound McInerney winning the Million Dollar Chase just weeks after she passed.

"It was only a couple weeks after Mary's funeral I reckon," he said. "You always look upon a bit of her influence, her looking down on that dog as well."

With Sweet as Mary originally sent to Geelong-based trainer Brendan Pursell, who trains many of Noel's runners, she later returned home to the south-west as "they couldn't keep her in".

"She just kept jumping out of the yard and going for a wander round the property... so they brought her home to a local (trainer) here, Kurt Howard," Brown said.

Making her debut at Warrnambool on December 28, she's already proving an exciting prospect.

"She looks as if she's going to be pretty handy, she's running reasonable times as well, she's only going to get stronger," Brown said. "She's not a big bitch but she's very switched on.

"She's still only young yet and has a lot of maturing to do yet.

"Hopefully she goes and does a bit better, can get to Melbourne and win some races... and provides a bit more excitement."