The return of champion Wow She’s Fast will be the highlight in Saturday night’s $233,250 Group 1 Sportsbet Topgun (525m), the headline event on opening night of the Sportsbet Dream Chasers Festival at The Meadows.
Dream Chasers is the world’s richest greyhound racing carnival, with more than $4.1 million in prizemoney on offer over five sensational Saturdays.
The series also features the G3 Shootout (Saturday, November 18) and G1 Sportsbet Melbourne Cup (Saturday, December 2), both at Sandown Park, before returning to The Meadows for the third running of The Phoenix (Saturday, December 16).
Regarded as greyhound racing’s version of the thoroughbred code’s famed Cox Plate, the invitation-only Topgun Sprint is one of three Group 1 events being held this Saturday over all three distances.
The star-studded meeting also features the $121,500 Sportsbet Topgun Stayers over 730m and $121,500 Hume Cup over 600m.
The Topgun (race 10, 9.29pm) sees the hugely-anticipated return to racing of the world’s highest earning greyhound, Wow She’s Fast (box 7), which has banked an almost incomprehensible $2,389,995 in prizemoney.
Wow She’s Fast, which is trained by Pearcedale couple Kel and Jackie Greenough, faces the biggest test of her 20 win from 32-start career, as she hasn’t raced since May 18, which is reflected in her $13 price with Sportsbet.
The market is dominated by brilliant youngsters Alpha Zulu (box 2), trained by two-time Topgun winner Jason Thompson, and Schillaci (box 1), prepared by pizza business proprietor Jihad Talgi, which are $2.30 favourite and $2.90, respectively.
Wow She’s Fast’s kennelmate, Big Energy (box 5), is the only other invitee at single figures, at $7.50.
Another greyhound returning from a layoff is $3 favourite for the Topgun Stayers (race 8, 8.49pm) in boom prospect Like Wildfire (box 5).
Winner of 10 of his 12 starts, highlighted by the 715m Speed Star at Sandown Park, Like Wildfire is trained by master distance conditioner Robert Britton, who won the race with the great Tornado Tears, Like Wildfire’s ‘uncle’, in 2020.
Tasmanian visitor Raider’s Guide (box 1), trained by Gary Fahey, and middle distance ‘magician’ Hector Fawley (box 5), a near-record heat winner for Lisa Cockerell, head betting on the Hume Cup (race 6, 8.11pm) at $2.50 and $3.30 respectively.
For the second consecutive year, the Topgun meeting, and the remaining four nights of the Dream Chasers Festival, will be showcased nationally on free-to-air television on Racing.com, as well as Foxtel’s channel 529.
