Raymond and Maree Smith have had a successful weekend at Wentwork Park.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Forbes greyhound trainers had three dogs in the rich Easter weekend carnival, including one in the million-dollar Easter Egg final.
Irinka Lizzy is a promising starter, having amassed more than $35,000 in winnings with eight wins, nine seconds and a third from just 20 starts.
Unfortunately, she ran into trouble at the first turn in the night's feature race and couldn't recover.
But the Smiths had had a successful start to the night when Public Speaking came home second in the first race, the Ladbrokes Odds Boost Stakes.
Then their young dog Feral Franky powered home to win the Group 3 New Sensation.
Feral Franky was able to avoid the first turn scrimmage, find second spot and run down the leader, Nangar Diva.
"There looked to be a bit of trouble on the first turn, and once he got through I thought we were in with a good chance from there," Smith told The Dogs.
Feral Franky clocked 29.87s for the 520 metres with the Cudal-owned Nangar Diva hanging on for third.
The Smiths' speedster Little Digger picked up a second in the Group 1 Association Cup.
The winner, Veloce Nero trained by John Finn, led all the way while Little Digger made his way forward from fourth.
"Digger went better than ever, but he didn't quite peg her back," Smith said.
READ ALSO: Little Digger delights with win at Dubbo
A busy racing schedule continues for the Irinka kennel, with three of their dogs chasing points in the next round of the Ladbrokes Challenge in Temora this weekend.
Feral Franky, Public Speaking and Solar Sky are all in the running for a finals spot at Wentworth Park in July.
"The big guns" of the kennel, Feral Franky and Little Digger, are trialling for the Speed Star at Sandown, Melbourne.
With qualifiers now taking place, finals day on Sunday May 5 sees the contenders race one-on-one.
Little Digger will go out for the 715 stayer distance, Feral Franky will trial for the 515m sprint distance.
It's a different format for the greyhounds, but with $190,000 in prize money on offer for the day it should make for exciting racing.
READ ALSO: $2.5 million plan for Templar Street