*Written by Gerard Guthrie, Greyhound Recorder.

Prodigious talent House Of Sins took the next step on the road to middle distance stardom when setting a near-record pace in the heats of the Group 1 Hume Cup (600m) at The Meadows at Monday night’s Melbourne Cup Eve meeting.

While trainer Anthony Azzopardi was delighted with the performance, he was less enthusiastic about the son of Bernardo and Legendary Lass drawing box eight for Saturday night’s $100,000-to-the-winner final.

House Of Sins emerged as an elite middle distance talent when reeling off six straight wins but had his colours lowered twice at Sandown Park heading into the Hume Cup run-offs.

Ideally drawn inside – the first time in his 31-start career he’d exited box two – House Of Sins started on the third line of betting at $3.80 in the second heat and took full toll of the inside alley to lead all-the-way in a sizzling 34.08, downing favourite Blue Storm in the fastest time of the six qualifiers.

Caco Magic holds The Meadows’ 600m record at 33.91.

It was House Of Sins’ 15th career win and fourth from six starts over 600m at The Meadows.

“He went super but drawing box eight put a bit of a dampener on things,” Azzopardi said.

House Of Sins wins his Hume Cup heat in best of the night time of 34.08 seconds.

“He can handle box eight, no problems. That’s where he wants to be, but it’s probably a bad draw for him in this race because I don’t think he can get across.

“Last night is probably as quick as he’s going to go early. That really impressed me, so hopefully he can keep that up.

“Apart from the draw, I can’t fault him. It just depends how the race is run, if he gets himself into a good position, he’ll be coming after them. I’m telling you!”

Despite Azzopardi’s concerns, House Of Sins has been installed $3.30 Hume Cup favourite.

Azzopardi’s disappointment at the Hume Cup box draw was eased somewhat when exciting youngster Canya Talk Now drew box three for the G1 Topgun (525m).

Winner of 15 of his 21 starts, Canya Talk Now, a son of Tommy Shelby and Modern Talking is rated a $7.50 chance.

“I’m rapt – that draw was kind to me,” Azzopardi said.

“Box three gives him a good chance. He’s got to do what he does. He needs to come out, hold them out, and put the pedal to the metal.”

Brooke Ennis and husband Jamie will have strength in numbers after qualifying three finalists, despite producing only one heat winner, Cobble Hill, which prevailed in a photo finish in the final run-off.

Cobble Hill, a well-bred son of Fernando Bale and Refined, claimed his fourth straight win, improved his perfect record over 600m at The Meadows to three from three, and took his overall record to nine from 15.

The Ennises, who won the 2014 Hume Cup with their superstar My Bro Fabio, also qualified heat runners-up Blue Storm (Tommy Shelby x Just Terms) and Hurricane (Bernardo x Magical Mavis).

The other heat winners, in time order, were: Gemma Keeping (Bronte Bravo) – 34.23, No Stop Signs (Nick Britton) – 34.37, Vista Weird (Korie Heinrich) – 34.48, and Eventuate (Jason Sharp) – 34.64,