Marty Hallinan, the state's most successful owner-breeder, has enjoyed dozens of successful race meetings but acknowledges it would be hard to top his resounding Million Dollar Chase night at Wentworth Park.
Hallinan provided the quinella in the Ladbrokes MDC Maiden Final, with the Jason Magri-trained ZIPPING Megatron bolting in by five lengths ahead of ZIPPING Bentley, trained by Mick Hardman, in a best of the night 29.42.
ZIPPING Vanessa presented Hallinan and wife Fiona with their biggest pay cheque of the evening when she overcame a slow start to run away with the $100,000 to the winner 720m Sydney Cup.
Then ZIPPING Teresa led all the way from box six to comfortably take out the GRNSW Young Star Consolation final in 29.86.
ZIPPING Teresa, ZIPPING Megatron and ZIPPING Bentley are members of the second litter produced by Hallinan's former exciting speedster Zipping Mitzy, a Barcia Bale bitch who was trained by Jason Magri and who won 13 of just 25 starts.
While ZIPPING Megatron's extraordinary 29.42 figures for a maiden puppy were the talk of the track on Friday, Hallinan pointed out that another of that dog's litter siblings was "nearly as good.''
Hallinan said: "ZIPPING Megatron's litter brother ZIPPING Optimise, which Jason Magri also trains for me, is only a tenth of a second slower so that's still pretty quick.
"Although ZIPPING Optimise, who is yet to win a race, may not have quite as much early pace as ZIPPING Megatron.''
Hallinan's keen eye for being able to assess the breeding potential of a bitch enabled him to secure ZIPPING Vanessa, whose Sydney Cup win marked her seventh Wentworth Park 720m victory in nine appearances.
While she is by the highly successful stud dog Feral Franky, ZIPPING Vanessa is, on her dam's side, not especially well bred.
Hallinan explained: "She is out of a bitch called Shoshe, who is by a dog called Renegade Chief and who was owned and trained by my friend Darryl Prestwidge and his mate Dave Thornberry.
"Shoshe was no world beater, her Wentworth Park wins were in 30.15 and 30.28 and she won six races from 30 starts.
"But she could ping the lids and there was something about her that told me she could be a good broodie.
"Darryl was retiring and didn't want to keep from her so he signed Shoshe over to me to breed from.''
Shoshe was purely a sprinter who could not break 30sec at Wentworth Park but Hallinan's judgment has proved clairvoyant-like, with her daughter ZIPPING Vanessa now arguably Australia's number one stayer.
Fernando Hunter has been retired following his tenacious win in Friday night's $100,000 to the winner Masters Meteor at Wentworth Park.
Darryl Thomas, whose partner Michelle Sultana trains Fernando Hunter, said: "He has done the job we wanted him to do, which has long been to win the Meteor.''
Only dissenting voice at the prospect of Fernando Hunter's impending retirement was that of part-owner Brenton Avdulla, the multiple group one winning jockey.
"Brenton was inclined to let Fernando Hunter continue racing but he is okay with our decision,'' Darryl Thomas said.
Reflections, who has won seven races at Wentworth Park, indicated she is back in top form when she not only scored her first win since March but broke the first split record at Gosford last Tuesday night.
Trained by Justin King for her breeder Kerry Drynan, Reflections led all the way over 515m in a sizzling 29.43, posting an opening section of a gob-smacking 4.23sec.
"She will have her next start this week at Richmond before heading back to Wenty,'' trainer King said.
