Champion Victorian trainer Darren McDonald has plumped for Dark Warrior as the pick of his three well credentialled runners at Wentworth Park on Saturday night.
Darren has Where’s The Surf in box five in race four, There’s A Earn in box four in race five and Dark Warrior in box seven in race six.
“Dark Warrior likes to be drawn wide so he is well boxed,’’ Darren said.
“He should be hard to beat from there and I’d say he would be my best chance.
“But There’s A Earn probably has more potential than any of them and given a clear run he will run a good race.
“I don’t know the Sydney form but from what I’ve been told Where’s The Surf might struggle from his middle draw.’’
There’s A Earn and Where’s The Surf are litter brothers and were whelped by Nova Surf, whom McDonald trained successfully for her NSW owner.
There’s A Earn and Where’s The Surf have won 16 of their 36 races while Dark Warrior’s record is an imposing 30 wins from 56 appearances.
Smashing Sally has trialled well at Dapto in preparation for her comeback in Saturday night’s tenth race at Wentworth Park.
Trained at Tahmoor by Neil Falk, a veteran of 45 years’ training greyhounds, Smashing Sally has not raced since injuring a back leg muscle when fifth in Rue De Kahn’s National Futurity final at The Gardens on February 7.
She had defeated the final winner in a heat on January 24 before chasing home Little Satisfies in a semi-final a week later.
“After I got her back from hurting her leg muscle Smashing Sally hand slipped well but then she got injured again,’’ Neil said.
“But she is okay now and I put her around Dapto over 520 metres last Friday morning and she clocked 30.17 which is pretty good.
“Smashing Sally is easily the best of the five greyhounds I have in work, in fact the other four are ordinary.
“This will probably be the last batch of dogs I’ll train because I’m 70 years old and since I’ve been training I haven’t had time for a holiday.’’
She was beaten over a dozen lengths but Watch Me Ignite’s third to Hersi and My Cosmic Encore at Wentworth Park last Saturday was a tidy effort.
The Kayla-Jane Coleman-trained daughter of Bombastic Shiraz and Paua To Ignite has box four in race one on Saturday and faces only average fifth grade opposition.
Last week Watch Me Ignite dwelt at box rise but showed good early speed to be third at the first turn.
But she was hampered at that point and ran off the track, then collided while attempting to get back to the rails near the 720m boxes.
Watch Me Ignite was having her first Wentworth Park race last week and looked strange to the track so could be a vastly improved greyhound this Saturday night.
Victorian greyhounds are expected to dominate the 720m Betfair Cup with Born Ali, Dyna Kayla and Destini Fireball standing out in heat one and Dyna Willow taking on Lucy Wires in heat two.
Best Bet: Dark Warrior (Race 6)
Best Value: Watch Me Ignite (Race 1)
Quaddie: Race 5 – 4, 7, 3
Race 6 – 7, 3, 1
Race 7 – 4, 8, 5
Race 8 – 7, 6
$20 for 37.03%
