KEY POINTS:
Thrilling Moe completely dominated the recent New Zealand Futurity Stakes at Wanganui's Hatrick Raceway.
Tonight the Tirau-trained greyhound is looking to add back-to-back group one victories on the same track when he lines up in the $20,000 New Zealand Breeders' Stakes (race 5, 7.10pm).
He returned the fastest time in last week's two semifinals held over 520m. However, Thrilling Moe will have to fend off some fairly serious looking sibling rivalry if he is going to secure his 11th career win from just his 15th raceday outing.
Litter brother Thrilling Louie impressed in the manner in which he won his semifinal at the Manukau Stadium last week - cutting clear for an emphatic 7 1/4-length win.
Karen Walsh prepares both of these exciting chasers and she provides her assessment on their likely chances.
"Moe missed a fair bit of work following the Futurity as he suffered a slight hock strain in that race. He will have improved from last week - which his work since has indicated," said Walsh.
"I am concerned about his wide draw [box 8] as he will need to jump quickly, push up on to the pace and hopefully slot into a good spot going around the first turn. He's ready for a bold race," confirmed Walsh.
"I was very pleased with Louie's semi run at Manukau as the track was running rather slow that night. Since then he has tightened up appreciably and he has thrived in his work at home during this week. My concern is that he can be slow from the traps and I'm hoping he can pick his way through the field."
Looming as the biggest dangers to the brothers is another set of litter siblings in Heatherlea Rose and Marty Hall, trained in Levin by Alan and Janet Hall.
