The impeccably bred son of Bella infrared and Ebby Miss was slowly away from box eight but swept around the field to grab early leader Pantera Nera on the bend and pull away to win the 450 metre $40,000-to-the-winner final.

What made the win even more impressive was the quality of the field, which included a Melbourne Cup winner, Bulli Gold Cup winner and Launceston Cup winner. The eight runners also had a combined total of nearly $1.3 million in prizemoney between them.

Punters sent the Rosalyn Hume-trained Aussie Infrared out as the $2.40 favourite on Thursday night and he clocked 24.94 seconds to beat the Gavin Burke-trained Pantera Near from Victoria by three quarters of a length with Cosmic Heir from Tasmanian Patrick Ryan’s kennels third.

Local hopes Ando’s Mac for Jason Mackay and Wild Walter for Terry Priest were in the mix early but lost ground and any chance of success when the field bunched and they struck interference at the first turn.

The Tony Apap-trained Outside Pass was fourth, Ando’s Mac fifth, John Little’s Pedro Serrano sixth, Paul Braddon’s Falcon’s Fury seventh and Wild Walter eighth.

Several hundred supporters turned out for Maitland Greyhound Club’s biggest night of the year.

Storm clouds threatened to put a dampener on the time-honoured event when a shower forced the crown indoors between races one and two but it cleared up after that and the night went off without a hitch.

Congratulations to curator Luke Baker who prepared a fast and safe track despite steady rain hampering his preparations during the previous two weeks leading into the big event.

Nine other feature races kept punters busy during Gold Cup night at Maitland.

Hope’s A Chance won the Classic Bet Damsel Dash over 400 metres for trainer Paul Braddon while Our Songar won the J&H Air Conditioning Bronze Bullet for local trainer Sonia Greene.

Tough Times won the Car Buzek Trophies 

Maiden for Jill Harper, Ferrero Miss won the Butterflies In Cessnock Stakes for Paul Braddon, Marj Petal won the No Donuts At Stud Stakes for Darryl Wilson, Black Hole Sun won the PPK Mining Group Consolation Stakes for John Little, Grid Lock won the Cant’s Building and Construction Stakes for Jennifer Barnett and Code’s Here won the Rutherford Hotel Stakes for Mark Davidson.

A big thank you to Maitland Supporters Club members Margaret Enright, Denise Hill, Margaret Bright and Barbara Rees for sponsoring the Margaret Dunn Memorial Stakes on Gold Cup night in honour of their friend and greyhound racing stalwart who passed away earlier this year.

Margaret’s son, David Dunn, took great pride in presenting the trophy to trainer Gary Adams after Rambo Banner won the fourth and fifth grade 450m race in 25.24s.

David said he hoped he memorial race would become annual event on the Maitland club’s biggest racing night of the year.