Wow was his name and that was the exclamation echoing from punters after the Karina Britton trained greyhound produced a stunning best time of the night performance at Bulli on Saturday.
Having his first start since being sidelined with a wrist problem six weeks ago, Wow took out the opening event, a 400m maiden, in "group race'' time of 22.24sec.
Not only did Wow clock .10sec faster than Lilly Banner posted in leading throughout in a strong third and fourth grade, but he did it after being slow to leave the boxes.
Despite being a conspicuous last when the lids lifted, Wow swept around his seven rivals to lead at the first turn and won easily.
Golden Easter Egg winning trainer Ken Wright, who has been Karina Britton's mentor for many years, said later: "Wow's problem is that he is usually a bad box dog.
"But that fast time was no surprise because the dog clocked 22.18 in a 400m at Bulli when he was still unraced.
"Karina secured Wow after the late Ron Field bred his bitch Miss All Class to Fernando Bale and the litter was whelped two years ago.
"Wow has always shown outstanding promise and Karina once refused a $40,000 offer for the dog.''
Box practice employed by trainer Donna Campbell leading up to Saturday night's Bulli card contributed to the brilliant getaway and all the way win by Sure She Is in a nippy 22.44 in a 400m fifth grade.
"She can come out fast but hasn't been doing it lately so I gave her plenty of box work during the week,'' Campbell said.
"And Sure She Is has been jumping on bend starts over 400m at Richmond which probably don't suit her as much as the Bulli 400m run.
"She is owned by Heath Eggleton, who has had success with greyhounds for at least a couple of decades as he raced Winmoore Osti, who won 19 races between 2001 and 2003.''
Trainer Darren Sultana reckons Oxley Blue Eyes was unlucky when third at Bulli last week but conceded his bitch's fortunes turned around when she led throughout to win a 400m fourth and fifth grade on Saturday in 22.77.
"Last week Oxley Blue Eyes jumped well from box seven but just could not get across to the fence,'' Sultana said on Saturday.
"This time though she went straight to the front from box two, and her opponents ran into the back of her about three times, so while she had no luck last week, she had plenty tonight.''
Sultana trains Oxley Blue Eyes for long-time successful Port Macquarie breeder Alwyn Watts, for whom he also prepared Oxley Rebel, a winner of a dozen races.
Cape Fernando maintained his unbeaten Bulli 400m record with his third straight all-the-way win on Saturday in 22.33 while training honours for the card were with Camden trainer John Smart, who won with Lovelace">Lola Lovelace">Lovelace and Loui Wonton, daughters of his former top notch stayer Lovelace.
Saturday's 400m Free-For-All was taken out by the John Chapman-trained Fontezza, who flashed down the outside to edge of Murphy Rumble and pacemaker Mottza in a three way photo finish.
In an interview before Fontezza finished third, from box three at Bulli last week, Chapman declared he would have preferred the dog drawn wide and on Saturday Fontezza made full use of box eight to score.
