Maitland Gold Cup runner-up Natural Player will return from injury at Goulburn on Tuesday afternoon, with his trainer Mark Wilcox expecting a bold showing from the son of Knocka Norris.
Natural Player injured his wrist when he finished second to Paw Licking in the Group 2 Maitland Gold Cup in late March.
While trainer Mark Wilcox was disappointed by the greyhound's injury, he was nonetheless impressed by Natural Player's effort to take out the runner-up spot.
"Paw Licking was always going to be difficult to beat, so I was really happy with the way Natural Player ran even though he only ran second," Wilcox said.
"He got beaten by about 3 1/2 lengths but ran a little bit wide into the centre of the track around the turn, and I reckon if he hadn't have done that he would have been much closer to Paw Licking at the finish.
"I reckon if he done everything right, there may have only been a length or so in it.
"Unfortunately, he injured his wrist and didn't pull up too great afterwards. So we've just given him the month off to freshen up and tend to the wrist and he's fine now."
Natural Player will line up from box two in race eight tomorrow at Goulburn and Wilcox is using it as a warm-up race in preparation for another Group race appearance.
"This is the first of a few races we are going to give him before the Bulli Gold Cup next month," he says.
"I'm sure he'll be competitive tomorrow but I'll be happy if he just puts in a solid performance. After the month off, he may just need to get a few runs under his belt before he really hits his stride."
Natural Player has an impressive career record of 16 wins from 21 starts and Wilcox believes it could have been even better without the greyhound's constant run of set-backs.
"He's had problems all throughout his career with injuries. That's why the dog has only 21 starts," Wilcox said.
"Before he even started to race he had problems with the webbing in one of feet which is still a problem to today and because of that, he always has to wear a rubber band when he races.
"Because of the injuries, it's really hard to plan further ahead with this dog.
"The Bulli Gold Cup is my short term aim right now, but we may look at heading to Wentworth Park after that.
"We really just have to take it a race at a time with him."
While Wilcox rates Natural Player as one of the best dogs in his kennel right now, the title of kennel-star belongs to another of his greyhounds who is also recovering from an injury.
"Natural Player is right up there, but Knocka's Return is the best dog in my kennel right now," he admits.
"Knocka's Return got injured in the Temora Cup Final and never made it to the heats of the Maitland Cup, but I think if he had, he would have probably run Paw Licking down.
"Knocka's Return and Natural Player are both very good dogs but Knocka's Return has a much stronger run home than Natural Player.
"I was disappointed not being able to put Knocka's Return in the Maitland series because of this sesamoid injury he has because he would have been very competitive.
"He's back in work now and hopefully I'll be taking both him and Natural Player to Bulli."
