Father Rick earned a crack at the group one Dapto Megastar by coming from fourth at the half-way mark to win a 520m fourth and fifth grade at Wentworth Park on Saturday night.
It was Father Rick's 22nd win in 67 starts and his eighth at Wentworth Park when he ran down Zeroed In by a half-length in 30sec, with Lidsdale Road, another possible Megastar hopeful, a luckless third.
But Father Rick's owner, Sharron Webster, sounded a note of caution regarding the Megastar series.
"On a track like Dapto Father Rick will need to begin better than he did tonight,'' she said.
Fastest time on Saturday night was posted by another likely Megastar candidate, the Craig Chappelow-trained Embrace, who won Saturday's Free-For-All by six lengths in a flying 29.63.
That win took Embrace's earnings to just on $174,000, and she will go into Thursday's Megastar heats with a group one victory - in last year's Peter Mosman Opal - already under belt.
Norman's Girl won only eight small races but is proving a revelation as a mother with two of her offspring from her first litter winning at Wentworth Park on Saturday night.
Mark Farrugia, who raced Norman's Girl, won with King Of Tulsa in 30.30 and with that dog's litter sister Nacho Queen in 30.10.
The winning double followed recent Wentworth Park P wins by Tonsils and Midnight Stalker, two other Farrugia-trained members of Norma's Girl's litter to Fabregas whelped in October, 2021.
"Norman's Girl was only a handy race bitch but I was always going to breed from her because she is by Barcia Bale from Funky Punk, so comes from a terrific dam line,'' Farrugia said on Saturday.
"Although King Of Tulsa only ran 30.30 tonight he will go a lot better from an inside box because when he won tonight from box six he crashed towards the rails when the lids lifted and cost himself some ground.''
Vic Sultana's pocket rocket Remember This, just 24kg, came out running - as she usually does - to lead all the way in a slick 29.92 on Saturday night.
Remember This reeled off an initial split of 5.39, although that flying first section was eclipsed later in the night when the Noelene Holloway-trained Super Edition led throughout in 30.08, after clocking 5.35 to the first mark.
"Super Edition finished second in a 400m race at Ladbrokes Gardens on August 18 and I subsequently gave him a post-to-post slip there to decide whether to go back to The Gardens or take him to Wenty,'' Holloway said.
"When he flew around The Gardens in the slip, running fantastic early splits, I put the nomination in for this meeting.''
Kingsbrae Demon, who won his heat from box seven in 30.09, again showed his liking for an outside draw when he led throughout from the same box to win Saturday's Dogs Only final in 29.99.
