Denice Warren knows that all animals are individuals

However, one of the more important things that Denice still abides by today is that all animals are different.

They are all individuals and you need to treat them as such.

Frank Day was legendary in harness racing, training and sitting behind the likes of star pacers such as Friendly Footman, the 1981 Miracle Mile winner from his Southern Tablelands stables.

His son, Denice's brother Michael, trained the 1982 Miracle Mile winner Gundary Flyer.

Growing up Denice worked her father's horses, was a champion show rider, and a jockey, before a fall and impending childbirth, saw her step away from the saddle.

These days, and for more than 40 years now, greyhounds have been Denice's racing animal of choice, although she did also show American miniature horses and is dabbling in dachshund breeding at the moment.

So, back to her father Frank's lessons.

"My dad always taught us with the horses that they are all individuals," Denice said.

"You're not going to work a dog or horse, like you would the next one.

"All have to be treated as individuals and I have taken that philosophy through to the dogs and it has been successful," Denice said.

"It can be very hard in the sport. You just don't get given a good dog.

"I've been a bit like dad, in that I've had to make the dog, I just haven't been handed good dogs," Denice said.

"But there is of course a lot of satisfaction when you work with a dog and get it to become a good dog."

While it was horses for her father and her siblings, when Denice married bookmaker Errol Warren she found her way into greyhounds.

Errol was at one time the secretary of the Goulburn Greyhound Club, and also is a former vice president of the club.

Errol's good friend Max Tyler gave Denice her first dog, a little bitch called Crack Shot.

She thought it was the start of a hobby.

"Errol used to dabble in it a bit, but I thought if you're going to have one, you have got to train it properly, you just can't have it, and race when you feel like it," Denice said.

"You have to put your heart and soul into it and that's what I did. The bug got me, mainly because I'm a competitive person and I got into greyhound racing and liked it.

"When I started off working with Errol when he was bookmaking, I had a few people ask me to train dogs for them," Denice said.

That's how it began to snowball.

"I've been lucky to get the nice ones that keep you ticking along. One of my favourites was Dusty Moonshine; she broke some distance records," Denice said.

"Willie Blues, he was on 0.02s off the old track record at Bathurst, and Mowski Star equalled the 472m track record of Aston Dee Bee at Bulli."

Denice has been very successful, and with International Women's Day on March 8, it's timely that the industry celebrates the achievements of women in the sport such as her.

Since she entered the industry four decades ago, the landscape has shifted, and there are far more women as participants and in various other club and administration roles within greyhound racing.

"Women can train as well as men and there are some very successful ones in the industry at the moment," she said.

"In fact in some cases I think women are better with a greyhound than a man because I think the dog responds a lot better.

"Not all cases, but I have definitely seen it happen," Denice said.

"You see it with horses too. Many times you will see a horse that will respond better for a woman jockey than what it does a man.

"There's cases that work the other way as well but whether it's the caring nature of a woman compared to a male trainer or whatever it may be, it happens.

"You get a timid dog and you will see it sort of responds a lot better to a woman because generally they have a softer, gentler nature."

While both men and women are on a more even footing these days, Denice believes the industry needs to start to incentivise young people to attract them.

"We've got to be prepared for the next generation," Denice said.

"We can't just be about now. You have a look at the likes of myself. I'm 73 and there really has to be young ones coming in to replace our generation," Denice said.

"There is no doubt that in recent times there has been a push to try and attract young people, which is great, but we really need to encourage that."

This article was produced as part of an ACM partnership with Greyhound Racing NSW.