Feral Franky is on target to land his second Group 1 race in a fortnight after drawing box one in next Saturday's $100,000 to the winner Maturity Classic final at Melbourne's The Meadows.
Feral Franky, who won the Group 3 Flying Amy Classic at Albion Park before taking out the Group 1 Ladbrokes Vic Peters Classic at Wentworth Park on July 13, overcame box seven to win his Maturity heat last Saturday night.
"He has got the right draw in the final, all he has to do now is to use it,'' trainer Jack Smith said.
Sydney-owned Rockstar Prince, now trained in Melbourne by Andrea Dailly, upset Londonderry-trained Good Odds Buddy and crack Victorian Black Opium to win his Maturity heat.
"I was scratching my head when Andrea Dailly entered Rockstar Prince for the Maturity because his past half dozen races over been over middle distances,'' part-owner Chris Nutt said.
"But the Daillys know what they are doing and while box one no doubt helped him, it was a massive training effort to bring Rockstar Prince back to 525m and beat a hot field like he was up against.
"Unfortunately he has drawn box seven in the final.''
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Xylia Allen won the 2013 National Sprint Championship at The Meadows and now her daughter Dyna Weslyn is on target to qualify for this year's National Distance Championship in Perth.
Dyna Weslyn, trained by Craig Roberts, took her record to an astonishing 22 wins from 33 starts when she won her semi-final of the NEW ZEALAND qualifying rounds at Addington on Thursday.
Dyna Weslyn is owned by Brendan Wheeler, whose father Paul owned Xylia Allen, along with four other National Championship victors.
Paul Wheeler raced Sprint final winners Henerik Bale (2001) and Fernando Bale in 2015 while he owned Distance title victors Jarvis Bale (2009) and Fanta Bale (2017).
While Dyna Weslyn is NZ's stand-out stayer, Brendan Wheeler's greyhounds also achieved the quinella in Thursday night's National Sprint semi-final at Addington.
Dyna Dave, like that stayer trained by Craig Roberts, won his semi-final from Sailor Allen, a relatively new arrival in NZ.
This year marks the first occasion NEW ZEALAND greyhounds have contested the Nationals, and the Shaky Isles will have a finalist in each of the Sprint and Distance run-offs at Cannington on August 24.
Neil Brown, from the Australian Greyhound Racing Association, said: "NEW ZEALAND is keen to host a future grand final night but the cost involved in getting 14 Australian greyhounds and their connections across the Tasman might prove a stumbling block.''
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GINA Lollobrigida, the Italian born actress who became a Hollywood movie sex symbol of the 1960s, turned 92 this month so it was fitting that her namesake, the greyhound trained by Andrew Rowe, scored her first win at Dapto last Thursday.
Lollobrigida, the greyhound, is a daughter of Pearl Irene, who was an outstanding sprinter for trainers Lorraine and Jack Roy, from Cootamundra.
Pearl Irene had the distinction of winning at her first start, at Canberra in January, 2013, and scoring at the same track in her final appearance exactly two years later.
Along the way she reached top grade at Wentworth Park, retiring with 20 wins from 52 starts.
"Graeme Sheather and his wife Angela Della Bosca, part-owners of Lollobrigida, raced Pearl Irene, and this new greyhound was given to me to train because both my father ERNIE and myself go back a long way with Jack Roy, who trained her,'' Andrew Rowe said.
"Jack Roy is a great trainer and has given me a lot of helpful advice over many years, so I'm chuffed that through him I have been given the care of Lollobrigida, who looks being a handy bitch.''
Lolllobrigida is from the same litter as the Christine Oldfield-trained pair Acapulco Heat and Billy Bucca, who have starred at Bulli in recent weeks.
Acapulco Heat has won his first three starts over 400m at Bulli, his latest two in 22.36 and 22.43, both best of the night times, while Billy Bucca scored first-up there last Saturday.
Lorraine and Jack Roy meanwhile are about to launch the career of a promising youngster named Changer's Chance, who clocked a fast 23.08sec in a 400m performance trial at Wagga on July 12.
"The record is 22.53 and with experience I think this pup can get down to that sort of time,'' Jack Roy said.
