Forbes trainer Jack Smith won last year's inaugural Ladbrokes 715 at The Gardens when Miss Ezmae led throughout from box one but does not believe the same prized rails draw makes his 2023 fastest qualifier Palawa King a "good thing" in Saturday night's $500,000 to the winner final.
In last Friday's heats Palawa King, assisted by a miraculous rails run in the early stages, had box four and won easily in 41.59 for the 715m.
Next quickest heat winner was the John Finn-trained Zipping Orlando, who overcame a poor box seven draw to score but has drawn superbly in box two next Saturday.
"Obviously I'm happy with box one but I would be equally pleased with two, three, four or even five, because Palawa King always flops out of the boxes,'' Jack Smith said.
"It's impossible to compare Palawa King with my 2022 winner Miss Ezmae, because she was a smart beginner while Palawa King is a shocker out of the boxes.
"The way they are drawn Palawa King is going to have to run down Zipping Orlando, because it is hard to see him being in front of my uncle John Finn's dog in the early stages.''
John Finn's wife Minnie said: "Zipping Orlando's heat run was terrific because he got checked early and gave a good greyhound a start to win.
"He has finally drawn a box in Saturday night's race and he gets his chances, there'll be no excuses if he gets beaten.
"Zipping Orlando is capable of coming out a lot better than he did in his heat too.''
Palawa King was bred by his owner Errol Hughes from his bitch Maximum Dos, whose racetrack career was hardly illustrious.
Maximum Dos won five of 47 Victorian races before being beaten in each of four NSW country starts for Hughes.
But her mating to Jack Smith's stud dog Brad Hill Billy produced Mount Hope, a winner of 14 races for Hughes, who stuck with his mate Smith's dog Feral Franky for Maximum Dos' next mating which resulted in Palawa King.
The last-minute cancellation of last Saturday night's Bob Payne and Ladies Bracelet heats fixture at Wentworth Park has left Nowra trainer Chris O'Brien in a quandary.
O'Brien, who had Mortified and Quantifiable in Bracelet heats and Modern Swinger in the Bob Payne, was planning to take them to Melbourne for heats of the Sapphire Crown and Harrison-Dawson at Sandown on May 11.
"With the Wenty finals on May 5 I had their campaigns mapped out but all that was thrown into disarray,'' O'Brien said.
"As there are now stand alone $15,000 to the winner races for dogs and bitches scheduled for Wentworth Park on Friday I'll have to re-think everything.
"But the farce surrounding last Saturday night's meeting being called off inconvenienced so many people, none more than eight of my owners and friends who had travelled from Mudgee and Wollongong to watch Modern Swinger, Mortified and Quantifiable in action.
"They had booked hotels in Sydney to stay on Saturday night so having to call them to say the meeting was not going ahead was terrible.''
