The premier event on the Maitland Greyhound Club’s calendar has attracted the best one-turn track specialists in Australia chasing the $40,000 first prize.

Two local trainers have claims in a field Maitland Greyhound Club secretary Tony Edmund describes as the best he’s seen.

“Richmond Vale trainer Jason Mackay has Melbourne Cup winner Ando’s Mac starting in box two, and Sawyers Gully trainer Terry Priest has Wild Walter in box six,” Mr Edmunds said.

“All eight finalist are group winners and only a metre and a half separates the lot based on qualifying times.”  

 Ando’s Mac, an elite dog  having won $615,000 in career earnings, is coming back from injury after winning the Waragul Cup in January and surprisingly got run down in his heat by Queensland dog Outside Pass, trained by Tony Apap, in his qualifying heat.

“He still ran a slick time [24.81 seconds] and qualified  as one of the two fastest second-place getters in the six heats,” Mr Edmunds said.

Outside Pass  [24.81] was the fastest heat winner and will start in box four.

Falcon’s Fury [24.89], another hotshot beaten in the heats, will start in box one.

Trained by Paul Braddon, Falcon’s Fury comes in on the back of winning the group 2 Bulli Gold Cup and Bathurst Gold Cup but was surprisingly beaten by Victorian dog Aussie Infrared [24.83] in the heats.

Aussie Infrared will start in box eight.

Pantera Nera (24.83), winner of the Launceston Cup in February, led throughout to claim heat five and will start in box three.

Tasmanian dog Cosmic Heir [25.00] starts in box five and has won his last four starts.   

Wild Walter (25.00), in box six, holds  sentimental value for Priest.

“Terry’s grand campaigner Old Spice finished up last week and it now looks like he’s got himself another group contender,” Mr Edmunds said.

Pedro Cerrano (24.89), trained by John Little from Wilton, rounds out the field in  box seven and has claims, having won throughout NSW in recent months.

“I reckon it will be a race to the first corner, and whoever gets there first will be able to  write themselves a $40,000 cheque,”  Mr Edmunds said.

The support card includes the Classic Bet Damsel Dash over 400m, J&H Air Conditioning Bronze Bullet  (400m), No Donuts at Stud Middle Distance Championship (565m) and Margaret Dunn Memorial Stakes, in memory of the Maitland Greyhound Club stalwart  who passed away earlier this year.

Gates open 6pm this Thursday and action will get under way a little after 7pm, with the Gold Cup likely to run shortly after 9pm.