The under-rated Go Bears, who ran the race of his life to finish third as a $23 chance in last month's group 1 Ladbrokes National Derby at Wentworth Park, is on the verge of getting into another big race following his brilliant win at headquarters on Saturday night.
The Ron Ulrick-trained Go Bears led throughout to win heat three of the Ladbrokes Road To The Egg series, and if he is first or second in next week's final he will automatically qualify for a draw in the heats of the group 1 Golden Easter Egg at Wentworth Park on March 25.
Go Bears' 520m figures on Saturday were 29.71, .13sec faster than the previous best of his five WP performances and .01sec quicker than Connections recorded in notching his fifth win in a dozen Wenty appearances in Saturday night's Masters Stakes.
Springview Hawk, bought off the internet for only $3500, scored his second WP win for owner Blake McLean and trainer Geoff Grimwood in a personal best 29.87 on Saturday night.
Springview Hawk, who won three races at WP for his original trainer Mick Hardman, was sold to Melbourne but after winning twice in 11 starts in Victoria was placed on the market again.
Trainer Geoff Grimwood said: "When Blake told me he had bought Springview Hawk for $3500 I had a shot at him as to why he kept buying 'second hand' dogs.
"But he has been a great buy and when he hit the front at Wentworth Park on February 11 before being run down by a strong dog in Double Baroque I knew he was close to another city win.''
Frog Stomp gave owner Wayne Chandler his first Wentworth Park winner in 11 years when he won first-up at headquarters on Saturday night, running down pacemaker Hurricane's Fury in 30.06.
"My previous Wenty winner was Macgruber, who was trained by Jeff Jaeger,'' Chandler said.
"Jeff is no longer training greyhounds and a friend of mine bred Frog Stomp and I got him for rearing him.''
Trainer Neville Broadbent said: "I was pretty confident when Frog Stomp was second around the first turn because he is pretty strong, I think he will develop into a top middle distance dog.
"But he seemed to dip on the back straight and lost ground, it was as if he missed a stride.''
Although his time of 30.32 was slow the Allen Williams-trained Massimo To Excel was responsible for an outstanding performance to score his second Wentworth Park win on Saturday night.
Massimo To Excel was skittled at the first turn and had to come from a distant third on the back straight to win by nearly two lengths.
"That was a remarkable effort because Massimo To Excel is a good railer but after he got checked the only way he could win was go around the outside of his rivals,'' Williams said later.
"Apart from his strength at the finish he showed good track sense to do what he did.''
Saturday's top grade race resulted in Simply Limelight ringing up his 14th Wentworth Park win, just lasting to beat Palawa King by a head in 29.74.
After the race trainer Peter Rodgers said: "I had wanted to race Simply Limelight at Wentworth Park last Wednesday night but there was no race for him so he went into tonight's race after being without a run and on the lead for 10 days.
"His goal is the Golden Easter Egg, because this year's Egg is the only chance he is going get to to contest that race.''
