Champion jockey Brenton Avdulla has ridden 13 group one winners but admitted to being "a bit nervous" before leading his greyhound Fernando Hunter onto the track for the first time before the dog notched his seventh and fastest Wentworth Park win on Saturday night.
Trained by Michelle Sultana for Avdulla, Fernando Hunter began fairly but mustered speed immediately to be a clear leader at the first turn before careering away to win a 520m Masters event in a personal best and quickest of the night 29.53.
Avdulla, who has had his handler's licence for four months, said after the race: "Actually I was supposed to handle Fernando Hunter at his previous Wentworth Park race but I 'chickened' out at the last minute.
"The dog made it easy for me, in fact until I took him to the boxes I didn't realise how kind Fernando Hunter was.
"He is such a gentle dog, so easy to handle.''
Avdulla, who narrowly missed taking a tumble in the final race at Randwick an hour before the Wentworth Park event, later revealed he wants to become a greyhound trainer when his riding career comes to an end.
"There's no way I'd want to train racehorses, I'd really like to train greyhounds,'' Avdulla said.
Bolt Like Elkie gave her owner-trainer, 23-year-old university student Courtney Power her first WP winner when she came from seventh at the first turn to win a 520m fifth grade on Saturday night in 30.19.
Bolt Like Elkie secured a dream rails run at the first turn to be second on the back straight and ran down pacemaker Mr Severide to score by a length.
The winner was a gift to Power, who explained: "My family trained Bolt Like Elkie's mother Kim Keeping for her owner Shayne Stiff.
"Kim Keeping won at Wentworth Park for us and when she retired to stud Shayne said he would give me a pup from each of her litters.''
Trainer Billy Dance was entitled to feel exasperated when Ibrox Wildfire was runner-up in each of her first five appearances at Wentworth Park but has certainly made up for those disappointments.
When she led throughout to take out Saturday's Free-For-All in a flying 29.55 she notched her eighth win at headquarters, with her time matching her previous best Wentworth Park figures posted on February 11 last year.
Agent Nevada wasn't even placed in her first two Wentworth Park outings but she confirmed her ranking as among the most improved in training when she clocked a slick 29.78 to run down Black Wizard in a 520m fifth grade on Saturday.
It was Agent Nevada's fourth win from her past five outings for trainer Tracey Kovacic.
Go Bears is Easter Egg bound after taking out Saturday's $10,000 to the winner Ladbrokes Road To The Egg final in a tidy 29.99.
Go Bears, trained by Ron Ulrick, went into the race as fastest qualifier following a 29.71 heat win and would have gone faster on Saturday night had he not got onto the heels of pacemaker Springview Hawk leaving the back straight.
