Four ripper 520m heats during the Hatrick Friday evening meeting will decide the finalists for next Friday’s $45,420 Spion Rose Cup. It will be competitive racing with the first two place getters in each heat returning to chase after Group 1 glory.

It will be absolute cutthroat sprinting between the straight out speed merchants at the Hatrick Raceway on Friday evening as they chase after the final field positions available for next Friday’s $15,825 Dash For Cash final from the six 305m heats to be decided.

It was on 20 March 2011 when greyhound owner/trainer Gary Harding said, “It’s only a matter time before the 25 second barrier for the Cambridge 457m distance is going to be broken."

A severe and violent electrical storm certainly didn’t deter the absolute quality evening of chasing action during Friday’s rich TAB Melbourne Cup meeting at Sandown Park.

It was huge payday at the Manukau Stadium on Sunday after the Craik family seized the greater portion of the $11,240 stake that was on offer for the NZRS Advanced final. They bred and trained Westworld and Beautiful Boy to form the quinella in the 527m feature event.

Star New Zealand sprinter Bigtime Paddy will make his Australian debut at Sandown Park this Thursday night ahead of a tilt at the world’s richest greyhound race, the A$600,000 TAB Melbourne Cup in November.

All roads lead to the Addington Raceway over the next three weeks as the rich Christchurch Casino New Zealand Cup series gets underway again with five 520m heats to be decided at the Christchurch headquarters on Thursday evening.