Mystic Riot and Cyril Figgis loom as the greyhounds most likely to end Victoria's domination of the Wentworth Park heats of the GRNSW + Ladbrokes Million Dollar Chase.
Mystic Riot, trained by Jodie Lagogiane at Llandilo, has box seven in Saturday night's opening heat while Cyril Figgis, from the all-conquering Raymond Smith yard at FORBES, will exit box six in heat four.
Victorian-trained dogs won all five Wentworth Park heats on September 22 and again last Saturday with Oakvale Warrior and Slingshot Whippa from south of the border, looking likely to take heats two and three this week.
Oakvale Warrior, who has won eight of 16 starts, is an up-and-coming two-year-old trained by Jeff Britton while Slingshot Whippa, who had no luck when sixth in a Wentworth Park heat last week, is prepared by his brother Robert Britton.
Mystic Riot resumed from a six weeks' spell to win a moderate fifth grade at Wentworth Park last Saturday and while she faces a big rise in class this week her performance last week was outstanding.
She was dragged down at the first turn and gave the pacemaker a huge start on the back straight before winning by a length in a fast 29.88sec.
"Mystic Riot is very quick as she recorded 30.49 in a clearance trial at Richmond before last week's race, and that is flying,'' trainer Lagogiane said.
"It does not really matter where she draws because all she needs is a clear run, but I slightly prefer to see her drawn wide so box seven on Saturday looks good.''
Cyril Figgis is well positioned out wide and has won four of his six races from boxes six, seven and eight.
"He certainly likes it out there,'' trainer Raymond Smith said.
Cyril Figgis has won six of 16 races and recorded fastest time of the night, 29.84sec, when he led throughout at his most recent outing at Wentworth Park on September 26.
Slingshot Whippa did not begin with his customary dash at his Wentworth Park debut last Saturday but still managed to lead narrowly at the first turn.
After holding down second spot turning for home Slingshot Whippa "ran out of gas'' in the straight but is expected to be a better dog for the experience in this week's Chase heat.
Oakvale Warrior has drawn the easiest of the four Chase heats and has posted fast times of 29.48 and 29.49 in winning his past two starts over 515m at Sandown.
Zipping Falcon (pictured), a luckless second in the group 1 Peter Mosman Classic in June, should end his frustrating sequence of placings at Wentworth Park by landing Saturday night's opening event, a 520m fifth grade.
"He has finished third and fifth at his past two starts at Richmond but his form is a lot better than it looks on paper,'' Magri said.
"Zipping Falcon is going as well as ever and he only needs to come out cleanly on Saturday to be awfully hard to beat.
"He has box five but there is not a lot of pace around him, especially on his outside, so he should get a good run from the boxes to the first turn.''
Although he has not won at Wentworth Park, Zipping Falcon has won seven of 13 provincial outings, and in many of them has taken on top grade sprinters.
Raymond Smith could make the long trip from FORBES worthwhile by snaring a winning double, with Pixel Pak, a relatively new addition to his kennel, looking great value in race 10, a 520m fifth grade.
Pixel Pak was badly checked soon after the start in a similar race at Wentworth Park on September 26 and came from a long way back to finish fifth, beaten less than six lengths.
Best Bet Zipping Falcon (race 1)
Best Value Pixel Pak (race 10)
Quaddie race 5 - 7, 5, 6
Race 6 - 5, 6, 1
Race 7 - 7, 1
Race 8 - 6, 4, 5
$20 for 37.03%
