Four of Wentworth Park's most successful trainers of young greyhounds will take 15 promising juveniles to headquarters tonight for nine heats of the Group 3 Ladbrokes Magic Maiden.
Western districts trainer Dennis Barnes leads the charge with seven runners, Nangar Kash (box eight, heat one), Nangar Gift (box two, heat two), Nangar Ace (box three, heat three), Sweet Nangar (box eight, heat four), Private Nangar (box three, heat five), Nangar Jill (box six, heat six) and Nangar Jack, who has box one in heat nine.
David Pringle, whose unraced puppy Shakey Jakey set a still unchallenged Wentworth Park 520m course record of 29.07 in a 2014 heat, will unveil three newcomers who are siblings.
Pringle has Midnight Starlet in box four in heat six, her sister Midnight Maggie in box five in heat seven and their litter brother Buck's Future in box three in heat eight.
Southern highlands trainer Jodie Lord will be represented by Winlock Huddy (box seven, heat three), Tornado Alley (box three, heat six) and Taken King (box four, heat seven).
Mark Gatt, Wentworth Park's premier trainer of 2017, has Ritza Millie, early favourite for the Magic Maiden final on March 31, in box one in heat one along with Rockstar Romeo, who has drawn three in heat five.
Dennis Barnes plumps for Nangar Jill as his most likely winner, but said: "My seven entries are all talented and fairly evenly matched.
"But Nangar Jill has good early speed and that should help her overcome box six.
"The worry with young greyhounds like these is that while they can run fast times in solo trials, they lack experience in full fields.
"And you never know what the dogs drawn around them are going to do in the early stages and at the first turn.''
David Pringle disclosed that Buck's Future has been sold and will be transferred tonight to Dean Swain, another leading Sydney trainer.
"Buck's Future won a performance trial at Wenty on March 7 in good style and is very promising,'' Pringle said.
"The two females in the litter, Midnight Starlet and Midnight Maggie have ability and can show early pace, but Midnight Starlet is the quicker of the pair.''
Lord's trio performed well in two recent Wentworth Park trials, with Winlock Huddy an unlucky second behind Ritza Millie and Taken King leading most of the way to defeat Tornado Alley.
Ritza Millie has been given a thorough Wentworth Park preparation by trainer Mark Gatt, who trained her dam Ritza Hattie to win over $240,000 in stakes.
In each of her trials Ritza Millie has showed great speed from the boxes to the first turn and from her favourable rails draw she will be a warm favourite to lead throughout in her heat.
Strongest race looks to be heat four, where Winlock Huddy clashes with Nangar Ace, the Ruth Matic-trained Embye (box six) and Spookie Midnight (box one).
Matic won the 2015 Magic Maiden Final with Black Bear Lee and the unraced Embye has been "burning up'' provincial tracks in recent trials.
Spookie Midnight's trainer Reg Gardoll has his kennels at Pillar Valley, in the NSW Northern Rivers, but he took out the 2005 Group 1 Vic Peters Classic at Wentworth Park with Watch The Web.
"Spookie Midnight is well drawn in box one and in trials at home she has been a good beginner with early zip,'' Gardoll said.
"But she has never seen Wentworth Park before so will be at a disadvantage compared to some of the Sydney dogs.''
Jeff Collerson’s Selection’s
Best Bet: Ritza Millie (Race 2)
Best Value: Nangar Jill (Race 7)
Quaddie
Race 5 - 3, 4, 8
Race 6 - 3, 8, 2
Race 7 - 6, 4, 3
Race 8 - 4, 8
$20 for 37.03%
