Bekin Street, a fifth grader just three weeks ago, has roared into the National Sprint Championship limelight with a runaway win in 29.98sec fastest time of the three heats at Wentworth Park last Saturday night.
And the Christine Proctor-trained greyhound's prospects of being the NSW representative in the August 25 final at Brisbane's Albion Park soared when he drew box one in this Saturday's state final at WP.
Proctor was delighted when Bekin Street came up with the rails alley, especially as Effective Comet, who made the pace but "presented" the heat to Bekin Street with his wide running antics, drew box two.
Cardiology, who caused an upset in setting the time standard in the National Distance Championship heats, has box seven in the NSW final of that series at WP this Saturday night.
In her heat Cardiology was shunned by punters because she had led by 10 lengths in the middle stages in a 725m handicap at The Meadows on July 15 before tiring badly to finish last.
But after her runaway win on Saturday night Shaun Evans, whose partner Kayla-Jane Coleman trains Cardiology, said: "In hindsight we think she was under-done at The Meadows.
"There was no straight track available to condition Cardiology in Melbourne and subsequently we did a lot of work with her in the three weeks leading up to the Championship heat so she was much fitter tonight.''
Ebby Ripper's trainer Michael Eberand paid tribute to Kayla-Jane Coleman after Cardiology relegated his dour stayer Ebby Ripper to a distant second placing.
"To turn Cardiology's form around like that was an awesome training effort on Kayla-Jane's part,'' Eberand said.
Cardiology won heat two in 42.34sec for the 720m, while Starzsa Light scored her seventh win in 13 WP 720m races by running down Midnight Treat to win heat one in 42.86sec.
Starzsa Light snatched victory by a head, with the surprise of the race being the fast finishing third by Kim's Love, who wound up only a length from the winner.
"I was rapt in that run because Kim's Love was having only her fourth long-distance race,'' trainer Keith Pedrana said later.
"Kim's Love might have won had she not come out last and then got tangled up with Elantris at the first turn.''
Mister Twister, early favourite to win the NSW final of the National Sprint Championship, lost no admirers wih his strong finishing second in Bekin Street's heat.
Mister Twister had to contend with a difficult box six draw and after being crowded early and pushed back to a distant fourth at the half-way mark, went down by just over three lengths.
"He has box five in next Saturday's final and while that is obviously not a great draw, it is also far from being disastrous,'' trainer Jason Mackay said.
"Mister Twister will need to nail the start but he has done that plenty of times.''
The other Sprint heat winners Prevail and El Magnifico, who each recorded 30.08sec, have drawn boxes six and three respectively in Saturday's state final.
Prevail exited box one for her surprise heat win and trainer Craig Chappelow was disappointed to see his greyhound draw wide in the final.
But El Magnifico's trainer Julie Fletcher was upbeat about drawing box three.
"I wanted to see him boxed close to the rails and while he is not jumping quickly he is getting to the line strongly, as he showed in his heat when he came from fourth on the back straight,'' Fletcher said.
Last Saturday El Magnifico was trailing favourite Nangar Rock at the half-way point but railed underneath that greyhound to set off after and run down the pacemakers Royal Turbo and Mack Tux in the straight.
Box draw for Saturday's NSW Sprint final is 1 Bekin Street 2 Effective Comet 3 El Magnifico 4 Mack Tux 5 Mister Twister 6 Prevail 7 Royal Turbo 8 Cosmic Bonus with reserves Knight Sprite and Dawn Mini.
Draw for the Distance final is 1 Kim's Love 2 Sherbini 3 Ebby Ripper 4 Frekey 5 Keysta 6 Midnight Treat 7 Cardiology 8 Starzsa Light with reserves Lovelace and Elantris.
See you next week!
