T-L Photo/STAN PAWLOSKI GIVING THE Wayne Ward Kennel a spark in the kennel standings this year at Wheeling Island are several young pups. From left are, Kiowa WW Mother with Alisha Nichols; WW Gale Irish and Kiowa WW Dot with Kelly Nichols; JJ’s Make Me Rip and Kiowa WW Brother with Ron Otto; and Kiowa WW Son with Chuck DiGiovanni.

In their early years at Wheeling Island, the Wayne Ward Kennel was loaded with an endless list of young sprint stars. WW Time Warp, Itsjustplaingood, Its A Fancy Tune, WW Accelerator, Flaming Glory, WW Ruff Enough, WW Way Out, Ruff Running, Its Chewbacca, WW Nick Of Time, Luckydeals Honor, WW Apple Jax and Gene’s Champion to name a few. This year, the glory days have returned. Sparked by an influx of young talent, the Wayne Ward Kennel is challenging Charter Kennel for the top spot on the win leaderboard. Leading the charge have been littermates Kiowa WW Dot, Kiowa WW Brother, Kiowa WW Son and Kiowa WW Mother; littermates WW Gale Irish and WW Gale Greek; and JJ’s Make Me Rip. “We’ve had some nice greyhounds break in the past few years, but this is probably the best group of young dogs we’ve had at one time. They’ve helped move us up from the middle of the pack to near the top in a three-month period,” Wayne Ward Kennel trainer Ron Otto said.