JUST how good is Pindari Express? That's what greyhound fans were asking after the Tracey Scruse-trained speed machine not only scored his fifth win in as many appearances but smashed the 450m record at Maitland last Thursday.
Pindari Express was third to leave the boxes but rocketed along the rails to take an early lead and left a smart field in his wake, stopping the clock at 24.59sec.
Victorian crackerjack Hone In had set the previous record of 24.63 in winning a Maitland Cup heat on April 5, lowering the figures posted by the Terry Priest-trained Old Spice, whose 26.48sec time standard was established on May 5, 2016.
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Pindari Express won a heat of the MTW Lodge Cup and this week's final promises to be a thrilling affair as Black Jack Opal scored his 15th win in 26 starts in another heat.
Black Jack Opal is trained at Budgewoi by Les Hudson, the original owner-trainer of the champion Black Magic Opal, who earned $570,000 after winning 35 of 48 races.
"Black Jack Opal's dam Glamorous Opal is a litter sister to Black Magic Opal,'' Hudson said.
"I was a little disappointed in Black Jack Opal's run home time in his heat at Maitland but maybe I'm being too tough on him, because until Thursday he had not been beyond 400m since October.
"Around six months ago the dog came down with a blood virus and it took a long while to get him right.
"Even now I get a regular blood count done on him just to keep on top of things.
"He clocked 25.30 in his Maitland heat but my goodness, how is he going to beat Pindari Express, what a dog he is!''
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COSMIC Bonus (pictured) will take his earnings to more than $174,000 if he wins Wednesday night's Village Green Hotel Cup at Grafton but the Harris family still rate him inferior to their 2014 Golden Easter Egg finalist Magic Display.
Cosmic Bonus, who shared fastest heat time of 23.09sec with Bogan Bomber, goes into the Cup final with a remarkably consistent record of 30 wins and 10 placings from 65 starts.
Len Harris, whose wife Evelyn owns and trains Cosmic Bonus said: "We regard Magic Display as the best greyhound we have had in our 50 years in the sport.
"She won 26 of her 96 races and while she only earned a bit over $75,000 she was definitely quicker than Cosmic Bonus.
"Magic Display whelped nine pups to Fernando Bale a month ago but it is her previous litter, just being educated, which we are really excited about.''
Len and Evelyn Harris trained at WYONG for 45 years before moving to their current property at Whitemans Creek, 15km from Grafton, five years back.
