Four-year-old stayer Ayden’s Warrior has added a Sportsgun Topgun Stayer’s title to his Sandown Cup triumph, proving age is just a number in a simply dominant victory over the 730 metres at The Meadows on Saturday night.

He came out of the boxes well enough to settle third behind speedy Queensland raider Beautiful Child and champion Without A Trace, the latter who threatened to wind back the clock.

But the Team Thompson-trained stayer assumed control in the middle stages of the race and never looked threatened, clocking 42.21 to claim his second title at the elite level, both beyond the age of four.

“He’s just like fine wine this dog, he just keeps getting better and better with age,” Luke Thompson said.

“When he won that Sandown Cup, he had just turned four years old, and to win at that stage of his career and finally get that group 1, you’d be thinking he’s not got many races left, but to the dog’s credit, he’s just been a phenomenal dog for such a long time, and to pick up another one of these group 1s is such a great effort by the dog.”

Thompson said there could be no talk of retirement with Ayden’s Warrior in this vein of form.

“You can’t fault him; his form is just faultless,” he said.

“The only time he’s been unplaced has been in group 1 races in the last 12 months. He’s just been such a sensational dog.

“He’s just got all the great traits, especially at this distance. He can put himself a bit more forward than he can in the 500 and 600-metre races, and tonight he just put himself in the right spot.

“It looked like the perfect map for him, but you’ve still got to be able to go out there and do it, and to his credit he was able to go out there and do it tonight.”

The win was his 37th from 87 career starts, and the $100,000 winner’s cheque took his career earnings well beyond half a million dollars.

The victory saw him firm from $9 into $7 to take out the Sportsbet Bold Trease final at Sandown Park later this month.

Beautiful Child held on for second, while Magpie Hector flashed home to grab third on Saturday night.

Electrify had absolutely no luck early from box 5, and was squeezed back to last before grabbing sixth, while Without A Trace put up a strong effort but faded to finish fifth.

Trainer Peter Presutto eluded pre-race that a poor performance from the reigning national and state Greyhound of the Year could see the retirement curtain drawn, but with a margin of less than five lengths to the winner, it remains to be seen whether the champion bitch will press on this Dream Chaser’s Festival.