El Grand Senor The One To Beat In Maturity Final
The flying El Grand Senor looks the greyhound to beat in tonight's Group 1 Hudson Pacific Maturity Classic after drawing box one in the $50,000-to-the-winner final.
The son of Where's Pedro and Elgrando Gold was the fastest of the four semi final winners, running 30.08 over the 525-metre trip, including a new second sectional record of 17.52 (previous record held by Closing Argument, Whippy's Image and Gardam Prince at 17.53).
A winner of 14 races from just 19 starts, El Grand Senor has been regarded as one of the country's most promising sprinters, and gets his first chance at Group-race glory next Saturday night The Meadows.
Other leading chances in the black type final include the Jeff Britton-trained Iceman Raikkonen, who took out the last of the four semi finals in 30.19 after running down the very speedy Mid Levels.
Iceman Raikkonen – a son of Solve The Puzzle and Shirl The Girl – will start from box two, a draw that has yielded three wins from four starts during his 28-start career.
The in-form Cosmic Planet will start from box four after a strong win in the first semi final of the night, defeating Carcour Kurt by one and a quarter lengths in 30.16. The son of Brett Lee and Cosmic Goddess will be trying to emulate his Group-winning brother Cosmic Chief, who took out the Warrnambool Classic in May.
Arsonist, who finished unplaced after starting favourite in the Group 1 Laurels in June, gets her chance to her atone after finishing second behind Red Lesta in the second semi final. The daughter of Elite State and Flickering Lady was the fastest of the Maturity Classic heat winners a fortnight ago, and will start from box seven.