Less than a week after his gallant runner-up placing behind Tommy Shelby in the Ladbrokes Golden Easter Egg, superstar dog Wow will be back on track on Thursday night in the heats of the Maitland Gold Cup.
Due to the Easter Egg being pushed back a week, so too was Maitland’s premier event, but on Thursday five heats will be staged, with the $40,000 to the winner final held a week later.
A number of quality dogs have entered the event, many who contested the Egg series, and fellow finalist Zipping Kyrgios will join Wow in the heats.
Wow was courageous in the $250,000 final of the Egg last Saturday night, checked early, racing wide up the back, but still coming within 1½ lengths of the West Australian star at the finish.
“When they are going that fast, you can’t run dog a down going 29.27s. You just can’t. It’s impossible. He has run a massive race,” trainer Danielle Matic said on Wednesday
“He’s pulled up really well … very good. He’s eating everything put in front of him.”
Wow will be making his Maitland debut on Thursday night and has drawn box 4 in a heat featuring Lismore Cup winner Fire Legend who has run 24.84s at Maitland and the consistent Knight’s Page. Matic agrees the wide, open spaces of the Maitland track will suit the dog perfectly.
“He flies around Bulli and the times he’s run there have been sensational and he’s won the Goulburn Cup and goes well at that track too,” she said.
She added that she almost missed nominating for the Maitland Cup.
“I knew it was coming up, but I thought the heats were on Monday as that’s the day Maitland usually race, so I nearly missed it. Thankfully I didn’t.
“There’s a lot of big races coming up after this too so we will have to plan what we do with him and see how he pulls up all the time.”
Darryl Thomas has enjoyed plenty of success at Maitland, and not only does he think Wow will thrive at the track, he is also concerned the track record of his dog, La Grand Quality - 24.56s set back in October 2019, could be under serious threat.
“He (Wow) can handle both types (two turn and one turn) tracks,” Thomas said. “I hope he doesn’t break the record but there is a big chance he will. The track’s a lot quicker thesedays than it was back then and his form shows he is flying and on target to probably break the record.
“I think that this looks like a race for him to lose as everyone is expecting him to win the Maitland Cup.”
Thomas has just one runner engaged in the Cup heats, the young Fernando Hunter who, while having lost just once in six starts, and having won at Maitland in 24.95s, will be taking a major set up in company for the series. He has drawn box 6 in the final heat and will clash with Egg finalist Zipping Kyrgios - a 29.37s Wentworth Park winner - who has the four box.
“He’s come back well from a short spell,” Thomas said. “This is a massive step for him. I wouldn’t think he can win (the Cup) unless things go his way. Zipping Kyrgios is flying and rest of the field go pretty good too.
“He’s (Fernando Hunter) been very strong in his races of late, but it’s just his box manners. He was a little bit better away last start, and I hope he can get away with them this time. If he can come out with the field and be close enough, he could run a race, but you can’t give a dog like Zipping Kyrgios a start.
“I don’t know if he might have hit his head one night on the boxes or he’s thinking about it too much. I was a lot happier last start, he came out with the field which is pretty good for him these days.”
Fernando Hunter is owned by Group 1 winning jockey Brenton Avdulla, just one of a number of jockeys who have become involved in greyhound ownership, and Thomas said there could be more soon.
“I went out to dinner with Brenton the other night, and he said all the jockeys are driving him mad asking for him to “get your trainer to buy us dogs””, Thomas said.
“Brenton is great, he rings me and we discuss the dog and he does a bit of the form … he understand it, and like me he can’t believe we are favourite over Zipping Kyrgios in the heats.”
In the opening heat of the Maitland Gold Cup, Ambrosoli placegetter Zulu Warlord has drawn box 3 and will clash with Jason Mackay’s smart dog Impress Leyton who has won 10 of 13 including two from two over the Maitland 450m, and the super consistent Ebby Infrared who has a 24.79s personal best at Maitland .
In the second heat Ebby Jet Power, who after winning in a sizzling 29.40s at Wentworth Park last week, had no luck at the Glebe track on Saturday night, will clash with some smart dogs including Michelle Lill’s More Sauce a winner of 8 of his 12 starts.
And in heat three of the Cup, the speedy Aston Zodiac, a last start winner over the 400m at Maitland in fast time, will be one of the fancied runners along with John Little’s Redshift Seven who led throughout to win the Listed Ultra Sense at Wentworth Park on Saturday night.
