Racegoers have not seen a more striking long distance debut at Wentworth Park than the performance of Zipping Kansas on Saturday night but trainer Jason Magri admitted to being "extremely nervous" before the race.
Having his first start beyond 618m, Zipping Kansas took his record to a dozen wins from 20 starts when he led throughout to win over 720m in 41.57, scoring by nearly 14 lengths.
Zipping Kansas' figures, surely unmatched by any 720m rookie, were just .19sec - the equivalent of around three lengths - outside the track record set by champion stayer Tornado Tears nearly three years ago.
Although he declared on thedogs.com.au website before the event that he was certain Zipping Kansas would have no trouble running out a strong 720m, Magri said later: "I have never been so nervous before a race.
"He was going to be a long odds-on favourite and everyone kept telling me how far he was going to win by.
"But while I was confident I knew that Zipping Kansas can occasionally bungle the start and I was thinking 'gee, what if he comes out six lengths behind them'.
"Fortunately he nailed the jump and went as good as we all expected.''
Fastest 520m time of the night was posted by Jodie Lord's exciting youngster Doonan, who not only won his third race in 10 days in Saturday's Maiden Final, but completed a hat trick of sub-30sec performances.
Doonan had led throughout on debut at Wentworth Park to win his maiden heat on January 9 in 29.85 and followed that with a 29.88 all the way romp a week later.
While Doonan won his first two races by a combined total of 20 lengths, he scraped in by a nose on Saturday over the fast finishing Simply Limelight.
Not far behind Doonan on the clock on Saturday were Frank Hurst's Ties That Bind who won in 29.75 and Scott Board's Spring Patriot who led throughout in 29.76.
Ties That Bind battled for the early lead with Opal Model but drew clear on the back straight to win by just over four lengths in 29.75, just .01sec wide of her personal best Wenty figures.
Ties That Bind, just two years old, has taken to Wentworth Park like a duck to water with Saturday's win her seventh in eight appearances.
Spring Patriot's all the way win took his Wentworth Park tally to five victories from nine outings, but after the race trainer Scott Board disclosed he had "done the hard yards" to maintain his greyhound's confidence.
Board said: "Spring Patriot fell in a heat of the National Derby at Wentworth Park on January 14 and when a dog takes a tumble it can destroy his confidence as far as coming back to the same course again is concerned.
"So after he fell I drove all the way from Spring Hill, near ORANGE, to Wenty, just to give Spring Patriot a solo trial around the track.
"Then I brought him back to Wentworth Park again, this time putting him around in a trial with one other dog.
"It was a bit of a hassle having to drive back to Sydney twice just for trials but it did the trick because Spring Patriot has put the memory of the tumble he took in the Derby heat behind him.''
Only other greyhound to break 30sec on Saturday was Michael Hardman's consistent front-runner Analysing, who led throughout in 29.84 and enhanced her record to 11 wins from 31 starts.
Saturday's longest priced winner was the Vic Sultana trained My Mate Holden, who was sent out at $26 but led throughout over 520m in 30.41.
My Mate Holden won the race with a slick getaway and a fast initial split of 5.43, scoring his first Wentworth Park success to add to his 11 provincial wins.
After the race trainer Vic Sultana said: "My Mate Holden has previously clocked a similarly quick first split and when he came out running tonight he was able to reproduce it.''
