A BOLD international experiment  is reaping huge rewards for former Queenslander Norm Rinaldi and wife Janice.

In 2008, freshly retired Tweed Heads couple Norm and Janice Rinaldi went caravanning around America.

They returned 11 months later with two impeccably bred female greyhounds.

Former trainers who had been out of the sport for 19 years, the Rinaldis stumbled across greyhound racing again virtually by accident.

“We were at a casino in America that had poker machines everywhere, when someone opened up a door and behind it was a magnificent greyhound track adjoining the casino,” Norm, 70, said.

The surprise discovery led to Norm chatting with staff and finding work at that track and a handful of other greyhound racing venues across America.

This involvement then saw the Rinaldis sourcing two greyhounds – Greys Destiny and Greys Lemon Ice – and flying them to Australia for $30,000.

In April last year, the Rinaldis moved to the Victorian town of Lethbridge and set up the greyhound property they live at today.

Before long, they were training the first pups from the American pair, with the results being nothing short of spectacular.

Together Greys Destiny and Greys Lemon Ice have produced 22 pups old enough to race and 18 have won races on metropolitan racetracks, amassing more than $450,000 in prizemoney.

General Destini, who last month was unplaced in the world’s richest greyhound race – the Group 1 TAB Melbourne Cup - is the best of them.

“I always thought that if I was going to get back into greyhound racing I had to breed my own pups,” Norm said.

“General Destini’s greatest asset is that he always gives 100% on the racetrack, which is a typical trait of American-bred greyhounds.”