It’s that time of year, the Nationals.

For the first time in a short while Victoria is hosting the majors – the Group 1 National Sprint and Group 1 National Distance at Sandown Park on Saturday August 29.

Those finals are made up of greyhounds from each state around Australia, so there’s a fair bit of state pride on the line.

Greyhounds qualify through heats and finals in their own state, which determine the representatives to head to Melbourne and take on the mighty Victorians on their home deck.

Heats in each state kick off this week. And as expected, our heats on Thursday night are certainly going to be the strongest in the country.

Last year’s Victorian Sprint final – Mepunga Reward, Paw Oswald, Tim Zoo, Smooth Plane, Deadly Avenger, Flying Zulu, Slick Splits and Lakeview Emily. Outrageous…

We see all of the big name Victorians come to the party. None bigger than Wrongly Accused, who took another step towards stardom with a powerful win at Sandown last week. Again he meets Off The Chart – box office stuff. That’s Race 9 and Heat 5 of the Victorian Sprint series.

As for the stayers, there’s two heats. The first is headlined by Without A Trace who looks hard to beat, as she often is. The second heat is far more open, last week’s quinella in the stayer’s race Amron Toy and Mepunga Donna meet again, this time joined by some very handy types.

And it’s not all about the broadway of metropolitan racing, the National Straight Track series also gets underway this week. The Victorian heats are at Healesville this Sunday.

It’s a big week ahead led by Thursday night at Sandown Park. Join me on Sky Racing 1 throughout the night for all of the big moments the card will bring.

Click here for the fields, via the Watchdog App

Wrongly Accused (2) defeats Storm Hustler (4) and Off The Chart (8) last Thursday

Last year’s Victorian Sprint final at The Meadows, won by Mepunga Reward (3)