Heats of the Group 1 Macro Meats Sapphire Crown and Group 2 Berwick Mazda Harrison-Dawson will light up the track at Sandown Park on Thursday night with some of Australia’s best greyhounds going head-to-head for a spot in next week's finals.
The Sapphire Crown heats will see some top female sprinters looking to win the $100,000 prize purse, including Golden Easter Egg finalist Magic Display
The lure of a Group 1 title has convinced trainer Evelyn Harris and her husband Len to make the 20-hour drive from their property near Grafton to Sandown.
"I'm driving by myself all the way down to Victoria with her. I looked at flying down but wasn't too keen on being separated from her for such a long time," Len said.
"She travels beautifully so she will be fine with the drive. If we make it to the final next week, Evelyn will be doing the drive with me so it will be a much better trip."
After finishing seventh in the final of the Golden Easter Egg, Magic Display tried her tilt at the Group 3 Ladies Bracelet at Wentworth Park but missed out on a final spot after finishing third in her heat.
Although disappointed with the result, Len Harris believes an incident at the start of the heat ruined any chance Magic Display had of winning.
"She tried to begin too quickly, hit her head on the boxes and that's probably what caused her to only place third,” he said.
"But I said to Evelyn after that heat, 'she's got to win a final sometime soon and she's flying at the moment so why not keep putting her in big races'.
"She's proven she's more than capable of being competitive so I think she should give the Sapphire Crown heats a shake-up."
Magic Display has never raced outside NSW before but Harris doesn't think this will effect her performance.
"She hasn't raced at Sandown before but she hadn't seen Wentworth Park either before the Egg and won a couple straight there first up so I don't think her not seeing the track will be a major issue."
Magic Display will jump from box three in the third heat of the night and Harris hopes his favourite box will bring a little bit of luck to his star chaser.
"Box three seems to be our magic box with her. I'm happy she's drawn closer to the rails and hopefully her record from box three will continue," he said.
Magic Display will be one of three NSW representatives in the Sapphire Crown heats with the Ritza Hattie (box four, heat four) and recent Dubbo Gold Cup winner Tricky Jade (box six, heat two) also making the trip to Melbourne for the series.
Other notable females making the trip to Sandown for the series include star Western Australian trio Zelemar Fever, Te Amo and Gone To Heaven as well as group race winning stayer Born Ali who will drop back in distance for the Sapphire Crown heats.
Meanwhile, the heats of the Group 2 Harrison-Dawson series are also littered with group race winning dogs and look sure to deliver up some tantalising racing.
Among the top names taking part is New Sensation winner Hooksy, who is being touted by some experts as one of Australia’s best sprinters currently racing.
Although flattered by the compliment, handler Jim Auld does not believe he is worthy of that title just yet.
"It's a big wrap for the dog when people say things like that. I think he's heading that way but I don't think he's quite there yet," Jim said.
"He's still young and he has a lot to prove. This series will be a very good test for him.
"He'll be up against really experienced dogs who have been doing their thing for a long time and he'll have to deal with them.
"The likes of Black Magic Opal and Red Road are going to be tough competition for him. The thing with those type of star greyhounds is that they just get out there and lead and you can't make any mistakes behind them or you won't catch them.”
Auld is confident believes is a winning chance on Thursday night.
"He'll need to find the front to be any chance of winning the heat and then we'll just have to wait and see what happens with the make-up of the final if he makes it," he said.
"His four wins at Sandown have been in excellent times. He seems to really like the track and goes really well there whenever he has a run."
Auld has big plans for Hooksy in the short-term.
"At first I wasn't actually going to put him in this series and just aim him straight for the Peter Mosman but when I saw how he went last week I decided to let him have a crack at it," he said.
"It's a $100,000 race, so you'd be stupid not to at least consider it.
"It's all in the lap of the gods now but as long as he pulls up well from these races, we'll be heading to the Peter Mosman next."
