Doctor Michael Carroll - now a Geelong-based general practitioner - and John O'Toole grew up near Dennington and attended Christian Brothers College as students.

The pair, part of a five-pronged greyhound racing syndicate, are relishing the chance to follow star chaser Simon Told Helen as the two-year-old collects cup after cup across the nation.

The speedster, who has accrued $433,465 and five group victories from just 21 starts, has already etched his name as one of the sport's greatest-ever.

"The blood lines were definitely there," Carroll said.

"(Simon Told Helen's) brother Who Told Stevie can move and his other brother, Who Told Gawnie, is really yet to be raced but we have high hopes for him too.

"But Simon Told Helen is definitely out of the box. He's only two years old and when he was first starting he was setting times comparable to (eight-time group one winner Fernando Bale)."

Horse racing was the duo's first interest after Carroll had finished university in Melbourne and moved to Perth for work. Their foray into greyhounds came on a whim.

Since their first dog more than 15 years ago, the pair raced four generations of greyhounds before hitting the jackpot with Simon Told Helen.

"We ended up getting into a racehorse. It ran in the Grand Annual Steeplechase but we only had small parts of ownership," he said.

"John and I kept crossing paths - catching up at social functions while I was at university and the Port Fairy Folk Festival and things like that, so we stayed in contact quite a bit.

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"Then a bloke we knew in Geelong had the idea to get a greyhound. I didn't give it much thought, but a month later he popped up and said 'I got that dog'.

"The penny dropped. I sort of thought 'oh, he was fair dinkum'. We had the same five in it, most of us from country origins, and we've enjoyed it ever since that first one in 2003 or 2004."

Is a career as a breeding sire on the agenda for Simon Told Helen?

"There's been a lot of requests for his blood line to go on, for breeding, and that's a possibility," Carroll said.

"At the moment it's very much about keeping all of our dogs fit, happy and healthy and enjoying their lives.

"The welfare of the dogs is the most important thing for us."

The south-west remains "the centre of the universe" for Carroll despite his 20-year stint in Geelong.

Carroll and O'Toole were forced to watch Simon Told Helen's second-place run in last Wednesday's Warrnambool Cup from home.

"We would've loved to have been there," he said.

"It's still the centre of the universe as far as I'm concerned as it is for most people who've grown up there.

"Whilst I've been in Geelong for 20-plus years the western district is just a great area."

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