Falcon's Fury should put a frustrating five months of inaction behind him by landing his fifth win in seven appearances at Bathurst in Monday's Orange Cup final.
Trained at Cowra by Paul Braddon, Falcon's Fury scored his 22nd win in 36 starts when he bolted away with his heat last week, covering the 520m in 29.55.
The other heat winners were Drink Schooners in 29.90 and Zipping Beau in 30.09 so Falcon's Fury has the equivalent of more than five lengths on his nearest rival.
"In May last year Falcon's Fury suffered a stress fracture of a bone at the front of a back foot and could not race for five months,'' Braddon said.
"When he resumed it took him a while to hit top form again but he trialled a smart 29.68 at Bathurst before finishing fifth at Wentworth Park on January 13, then came out and won his Orange Cup heat in even faster time.
"Falcon's Fury won the Bathurst Cup in 2017 and that seems to be his favourite track but I have not had a starter in an Orange Cup final.
"He has drawn box four in this race and while I did not want box one, I would have preferred him in box five, six, seven or eight.
"That's because Falcon's Fury tends to drift wide when he comes out of an inside box.''
Falcon's Fury is a true home-grown product as he was bred by Braddon and his wife Pam, who raced the dog's dam Janderra's Fury, grand-dam Flying Janderra, her mother Janderra and even her dam, Mackie.
Even rival trainers concede Falcon's Fury is going to be difficult to beat in tomorrow's Cup.
Lithgow coal-miner Mark Swift, who trains Zipping Beau, quipped: "Unless Falcon's Fury has to drag the starting box behind him we probably can't beat him.
"But my greyhound has never gone better due to finally settling down in his kennel on race day.
"He used to play up while waiting for his race and would exhaust himself in doing so but he is more tractable now.
"I set him for this race and at his last run before the Cup heats I gave him a 400 metre hit-out at Bulli and after coming out three lengths behind the field he won by a similar margin.
"Due to my employment in the mines I have to get up at 4am to do the greyhounds, start work two hours later, and am back home at 4pm to look after the dogs again.
"It's a hard slog but it's worth it.
"Zipping Beau is perfectly drawn in box eight in the Cup final.
"He does not have a lot of early speed and when he draws inside there is always a chance of him being crowded for room in the run to the first turn.
"But from an outside draw he can work his way around his opponents, and he is very strong at the finish of 520 metres.''
Les Whitton, whose greyhound Tina's Magic made the pace before finishing second in Drink Schooners' heat, said: "If Falcon's Fury gets a clear run we can't beat him.
"Tina's Magic had won three from four races at Wentworth Park and Dubbo before finishing second in her heat when she completely 'lost' the first turn.
"That showed me she doesn't go well at Bathurst, but I like to see her boxed wide so I'm not unhappy about Tina's Magic getting box seven in the Cup final.''
Ironically Tina's Magic's owner Brendan McHattan, from Nyngan, bought the greyhound for $3000 from Falcon's Fury's Braddon family on the advice of Whitton.
Sky Wave, who was second early when third in Falcon's Fury's heat, is expected to make the pace from her perfect box one draw while Drink Schooners, second fastest qualifier, has drawn poorly in box six in the final.
Orange Cup gets under way at 5.49pm Monday
Box Draw
1 Sky Wave
2 Utah Miss
3 Corleone Kid
4 Falcon's Fury
5 Zipping Sally
6 Drink Schooner
7 Tina's Magic
8 Zipping Beau
Reserves
9 Spring Jazz
10 Myrniong Mover
