The annual three-week occupation of the Hatrick Raceway by the Wellington Greyhound Club commences again this afternoon.
As usual, the club's main feature for the first day is the time-honoured $4000 E J Wing Memorial Cup (race 12, 3:23pm). From there the Capital City club move into their Wellington Cupheats, with the $21,000 Group 1 final to be decided here on January 24.
The in-form Foxton-based training partnership of Paul Freeman and Angela Turnwald are looking to defend the E J Wing Memorial Cup title they won last year when they trained Pink Sock to victory.
They are making a determined assault, having accepted with five greyhounds. Here's a look at that quintet in box-draw order:
Mercenary will probably be the least favoured of their contenders, even though he has drawn the ace trap. He hasn't been able to feature in two sprints since resuming from a spell.
Starting alongside him will be Superior Izmir who has strong recent form. He finished stoutly when closing to within a head of today's race rival Laugh Like Santa over 457m at the Manawatu Raceway on Monday.
The Hatrick warhorse and frequent Group race finalist Ate To Much returns to this track after his luckless outing in the recent Waikato Cup. He is a proven around this circuit and owns a handy best 29.89s winning 520m time here.
Indiana Izmir is another kennel runner who is in a solid patch of current form. He finished strongly when claiming his 2.5 length 520m second to Riggs here last Friday.
The final Freeman and Turnwald representative is Riggs, a swift 520m winner on this track last Friday. He certainly confirmed his ability by clocking a personal best 29.77s last week.
Laugh Like Santa is one of two Lisa Ahern-prepared contenders and was a stylish Manawatu 457m winner on Monday.
His promising kennelmate Check The Mail is facing his stiffest career assignment. The huge worry for him here is being required to start from the tricky eight trap (at this starting point). He must ping away smartly when the traps lift to avoid a wide passage.
The field is completed by the strong Bill Hodgson-trained chaser Speed Legend.
He has been given no favours by being allocated the five trap but produced a bold last-start Cambridge 457m second in a swiftly run race and he is likely to be finishing on strongly again today.
