Knight Sprite's 14th win in 29 starts on Saturday night at Wentworth Park marked the beginning of an ambitious campaign which has been mapped out by the greyhound's owner-trainer Gayle Masterson.
Knight Sprite, who took his Wentworth Park tally to five wins and five seconds from 15 appearances with his tenacious win over No Donuts, will tackle the Group 1 Ladbrokes Vic Peters Classic at Wentworth Park in October and the Melbourne Cup at Sandown in November.
Knight Sprite led throughout to hold off No Donuts by a neck in 29.87 in Saturday night's Free-For-All.
"In September I plan to take him to Melbourne and start him in one of the Melbourne Cup Preludes," Masterson said.
"Then we'll come back home to get ready for the Vic Peters Classic heats on October 17 and after that, Knight Sprite will hopefully take his place in the Melbourne Cup heats on November 13.
"I don't think Knight Sprite has put up a better performance than he did tonight because he was up against the big boys in a quality race like that and he acquitted himself beautifully."
Noelene Holloway has been among Sydney's most successful trainers for the past four years but she landed her first ever winning Wentworth Park double on Saturday night.
Holloway scored with Magic Spring in a heat of the AAA Radiator Specialists Series and with the remarkable Queen Esther in a fifth grade later in the programme.
"I'm very proud to have won two races on the same Wenty meeting, especially as I never have more than four greyhounds in work," Holloway said later.
"Magic Spring came down with kennel cough after he won at Maitland on June 11 so it was a good effort for him to win first run back from illness.
"And when Queen Esther trialled 22.60 over 400m at The Gardens on Tuesday I thought she might be ready to win again.
"She has seemed a bit jaded lately so I took her for a couple of drives in the car and did a few different things with her to break her routine this week.
"Both Magic Spring and Queen Esther were produced by my first greyhound Fascinate Marina, who was a gift to me from my sister Lorraine Atchison."
What a gift Fascinate Marina has turned out to be, as in 2008, 2009 and 2010 she won 12 of 125 races and has been an outstanding brood bitch.
Her first litter included Fascinate Mary, winner of 21 races, Queen Marina, who represented NSW in the 2014 National Distance Championship in Cannington, WA, and Queen Esther, who has won 15 races at Wentworth Park and earned more than $115,000 prizemoney.
Fascinate Marina's second litter includes Wentworth Park winners Queen Audrey, One Samuel and Magic Spring along with Big Tee Rex, winner of two races.
Time honours on Saturday night were with the Kristy Sultana-trained Jewel Action, who showed what she can do when allowed to dictate the pace, leading throughout in 29.64.
Jewel Action, who has now won eight of her 18 Wentworth Park starts, posted sizzling initial splits of 5.33 and 13.66 and kept the momentum going by running home in a slick 11.83.
See you next week!
