Kyrgios Sneaks Into Egg Semis

Zipping Kyrgios was sent out an odds-on favourite and missed a place in Saturday night's Ladbrokes Golden Easter Egg heats but John Finn's prolific big race winner has "squeaked" into this week's semi-finals.

Placegetters from Saturday's 10 heats at Wentworth Park qualified automatically along with the two fastest fourths, which were Zipping Kyrgios and the Frank Hurst-trained Ties That Bind.

After Zipping Kyrgios finished fourth in Tachycardic's heat, Minnie Finn, wife of the trainer, said: "Zipping Kyrgios raced as if he had a flat battery tonight.

"When I watched the race live I was very disappointed with his run but when I looked at the replay I noticed Came And Went, the dog in box three, leaning on our dog, who had box two, in the early stages.

"Zipping Kyrgios has never been comfortable when getting crowded on his outside.''

Ties That Bind's fourth in Idolize's heat gives the Hurst family two semi-finalists, as the Tracey Hurst-trained Good Odds Cash was runner-up behind fastest qualifier She's A Pearl.

In finishing second, Good Odds Cash clocked 29.63, so in reality she was clearly the second quickest Easter Egg participant last Saturday night.

She had box six chasing She's A Pearl all the way and will be hard to beat if she draws near the rails this Saturday.

IN the 50s and 60s greyhounds were known as the poor man's racehorses but if anyone needed convincing that epithet was no longer valid the earnings of the Dailly family's dozen entries for last Saturday's Ladbrokes Golden Easter Egg heats would provide a strong argument.

Team Dailly's mostly youthful nominations went into Saturday's card with prizemoney totalling nearly $1.5 million, with Australian Cup winner Lala Kiwi tooping the list with $630,945.

While Dailly failed to win a heat, Daph's Ascend, Zara's Ivan, Indy Matilda, Zippy Tesla and Lala Kiwi, their five placegetters and semi-finalists next Saturday, picked up an additional $8000 in the heats.

Mitchell Street's 30.21 was equal slowest of the 10 Golden Easter Egg heats last Saturday, but leading Queensland trainer Tom Tzouvelis believes the dog can break 30sec on a fast track at Wentworth Park.

Mitchell Street notched his 26th win in 65 starts when he led from the first turn to win heat one last Saturday and Tzouvelis, who handles the dog for trainer Jedda Cutlack, is confident he can improve.

After Saturday's heat win Tzouvelis said: "He missed the jump from box eight tonight and had to use plenty of gas to reach the lead going into the first turn.

"Boxes one to five in the semis next Saturday would be nice.

"At his only previous look at Wentworth Park Mitchell Street had clocked 24.30 in a post-to-post hand-slip so his heat outing was his first time out of the 520m boxes.

"He is capable of being the pacemaker in just about any race he contests so while 520m is about as far as he wants to go, given a dry surface he is a chance in anything.''