"He has come through his heat all right and I can't fault anything with him heading into Friday."
Opawa Diesel made a better start than usual, which translated into him producing his strong 29.96s heat win for his Canterbury trainers Robin Wales and Josh Lane.
"If he jumps with them, then he is a stakes earning chance. He'll need the right gaps to open up for him at the right time," suggested Wales.
Lisa Ahern trained Fashion And Fame for victory last year and her kennel will be represented by three finalists tonight.
Skuzi won his heat in 30.12s, while Sheer Miss and Winsome Jenny qualified when delivering heat seconds.
Ahern's husband Brendon Cole says there's little between their contenders.
"Skuzi must and can lead them into the first turn. Sheer Miss is very talented and she has the draw [one] to feature.
"Winsome Jenny owns slick mid-race pace."
The other feature is the Group 2 $13,000 Wanganui Liquorland Dash For Cash over the 305m sprint.
Five heats decided the field with the Ahern kennel dominating by providing four sprinters for it.
Spearheading her charge is Subic Bay who posted a quick 17.29s. Allegro Class wasn't that far behind when returning 17.31s.
"Subic Bay is a super fast greyhound, while on his day Allegro Class can match him," advised Cole.
The powerful, northern Steve Clark-trained Yeboah looms as the biggest danger to the Ahern squad.
He would have benefited from his 17.51s track debut heat win last week.
It's a busy weekend of racing at Hatrick as the Wanganui club backs up with another 12 race card starting at 5.40pm tomorrow evening.
