Greyhounds: Waterloo Cup heat at Hatrick Raceway

The pathway for a possible crack at the A$650,000 Melbourne Greyhound Cup begins for two greyhounds at the Hatrick Raceway tomorrow evening.

The Whanganui-hosted Waterloo Cup heat will be contested with the leading two greyhounds advancing to the $35,000 Waterloo Cup final, which will be decided at the Manukau Stadium on September 30.

Those two chasers will join a pair of Canterbury qualifiers – decided tonight – plus four greyhounds who will advance from the two Auckland-hosted heats, being be contested this Sunday.

The winner of the Group 1 Waterloo Cup final receives a guaranteed field position in a Melbourne Cup heat, which will be raced on November 16 at Sandown Park.

It was exactly the route that last year's Hatrick Waterloo Cup heat winner Bigtime Paddy took on his way to winning the Waterloo Cup final, prior to contesting a Melbourne Cup heat for his trainer Lisa Cole.

Cole will line up the warm favourite in tomorrow evening's Waterloo Cup heat (Race 10).

Blazin' Carter has blazed his way to two powerful recent Hatrick 520m wins.

Last Friday, he produced a slick 29.83s gallop from the one trap.

This evening he will be all the rage to serve up repeat dose from the same trap.

Blazin' Carter must adopt those same pace-making tactics, as greyhounds the calibre of Dirk Bale and Cawbourne Krusty are also capable of delivering a swift 520m time.

Dirk Bale travels north from the Craig Roberts, Canterbury-based kennels, to contest this heat.

The current Auckland Cup title holder owns an abundance of early pace which is an asset he must use when he steps away from the tricky five trap.

Roberts' son Matt applies the finishing touches to the talented Cawbourne Krusty.

She owns a slippery 29.80s Hatrick-best winning time over 520m, which she ran when winning the New Zealand Futurity.

She will hop away from trap three for this assignment.

Cole has three sound back-up contenders lining up in this heat.

Bigtime Tears, who won the 520m NZ Breeders Stakes here last June in 29.84s, will exit from trap four while her handy kennelmate Bigtime Twinkle will be loaded away into the eight trap.

Djay Dynamix has drawn to track through his kennelmate Blazin' Carter from trap two.

The Sandown Greyhound Club is sending the gold plated Melbourne Cup to Auckland to be on display at the Waterloo Cup final.