Miss Foxy Lee's sixth Wentworth Park 720m win on Saturday night was registered in one of her slowest times but was arguably her most tenacious performance.
The DEAN Swain-trained greyhound won by a length in a pedestrian 43.04 at Wentworth Park, but had been badly hampered in the early stages while attempting to cross to the rails from box eight.
After being second at the first turn, she was pushed back to be third with a lap to go and after being in that position on the back straight, joined kennelmate Starzsa Smiling in the lead on the home turn.
Miss Foxy Lee then surged to the lead in straight.
Swain was sufficiently impressed enough to immediately flag his intention to take the Karryn Atchison-owned greyhound to Melbourne for next Saturday's heats of the Group 1 Super Stayers at The Meadows.
"That was her most gutsy win," Swain said.
"She keeps drawing out wide and will be a far better greyhound when she draws near the rails.
"If Miss Foxy Lee happened to come up with box one in next week's heats of the Super Stayers she will be hard to beat, because she knows her way around The Meadows.
"She won a 725m handicap there not long ago and while she may have to take on Burn One Down, who won The Zoom Top at The Meadows on Saturday night, second prizemoney in the Super Stayers final would still make the trip to Melbourne worthwhile.''
In other action at Wentworth Park, Wicked Warrior notched his fifth successive win in Saturday night's free for all and will now be trialled at Richmond in preparation for the heats of the Group 2 Richmond Derby over 535m on March 3.
The greyhound's box manners let him down late last year but a change in routine by trainer Jason Magri seems to have corrected this fault.
"I used to take Wicked Warrior out for the pre-race stir-up but I noticed when I did that he would be clawing at the boxes just before the lure arrived,'' Magri said.
"When that happened he often misjudged the jump so I dispensed with the stir-up.
"As well as that I changed Wicked Warrior's diet slightly and since then the dog has been going better than ever.''
She's Grand was only run down in the last few strides by Falcon's Fury in the Bathurst Cup final last week but broke through for her first city win at her seventh attempt on Saturday night.
The Rodney O'Brien-trained greyhound showed her customary early speed to set up a big lead in the middle stages and went to the line full of running to win the fourth and fifth grade event over 520m.
She's Grand had made the pace in her previous six Wentworth Park outings but had weakened and registered just a single placing.
"She is a more mature greyhound now,'' O'Brien said. "Previously when we drove from our home at Blacktown to Wentworth Park She's Grand would be standing up in the back of the car, barking non-stop along the way.
"I think that probably took toll of her energy but she has become accustomed to travelling now and is so quiet you would not know she was even in the car.''
While, as expected, Wicked Warrior set the 520m time standard on Saturday with 29.85 performance, fifth grader Zambora Cross indicated she has a big future at Wentworth Park by scoring her 12th win in 28 starts with an all-the-way 29.96 effort in a fifth grade.
See you next week!
