Justin King had a night he would rather forget at Wentworth Park last Friday but that disappointment could turn to joy at the same track on Saturday night.
King has Allmendinger and Fraudulent in box one in races two and nine respectively at the meeting, which also features a host of quality greyhounds including Lithgow Panther (race four), No Donuts (race five) and Chica Destacada (pictured, race six).
Western Sydney trainer King, who will also rug up Miss Sueko in race six and Miss Dover in race eight, did not have the best of luck at last Saturday's event but Allmendinger and Fraudulent look strong chances here.
Last week Miss Dover led throughout in the opening event but King's delight was short-lived when the event was declared a "no race'' after fallen greyhound Winsome Prince ran back into the field and inconvenienced Bertacious Bee on the home turn.
Later in the night Fraudulent was desperately unlucky when a narrow second to powerful finisher My Boy Brodie in another 520m race.
Stewards correctly used their discretion to place Miss Dover and Bertacious Bee into this week's Ladbrokes Final line-up.
"It is a strong field but Miss Dover is flying at the moment and box six is not too bad for her as she seems to race well from middle boxes,'' King said.
But he is more confident about the prospects of Allmendinger and Fraudulent, who will each carry the red rug in their races.
"I'm very happy with box one for Allmendinger who has won four of his five races from the rails alley,'' King said.
"Fraudulent won from box one at Bulli on June 3 then had box seven when he won there a week later.
"Fraudulent can handle both inside and outside draws but at Wentworth Park, where they have a shorter run to the first turn, I prefer to see him in box one.
"I thought his close second last week was a good effort because he had to work hard to get around the two leaders and then the swooper, My Boy Brodie, caught him on the line.''
Invictive was run down by Nightwatchman in her heat but box one gives her a second-to-none chance of taking out Saturday night's final of the Ladbrokes Series.
Invictive and Aphorism duelled for the lead for the first 250m but when the former finally shook off her rival, noted strong finisher Nightwatchman found a rails run and came home too strongly.
"My greyhound and Aphorism cut at each other for the first part of last week's race and when I saw Nightwatchman sitting behind Invictive leaving the back straight I knew we were gone,'' trainer Jason Magri said.
"Invictive is not long back in work after a short spell. There was nothing wrong with her but her form had tapered off so I figured she needed a break.
"She has come back good and box one on Saturday night is perfect because the dog in box two, Bertacious Bee, is a wide runner.
"My brother Ray and I bred Invictive from Helena Star and another from the litter, Classy Sahara, is the faster of the pair.
"But where Classy Sahara is a bad race dog, Invictive does every thing right.''
Safest bet on Saturday night should be Constable Sniff who has box one in the Happy 21st Matt Purse Stakes.
For Wentworth Park Saturday fields, form and expert picks, click here.
Jeff Collerson's Wentworth Park Saturday picks:
Best Bet: Constable Sniff (Race 3)
Best Value: Invictive (Race 8)
Quaddie: Race 5 - 8, 6
Race 6 - 7, 1, 3
Race 7 - 2, 1, 6
Race 8 - 1, 4, 8
$20 for 37.03%
