Hooked scrapes into final

AUSTRALIA’S fastest greyhound Hooked on Scotch scraped into next week’s Group 1 Ladbrokes Hobart Thousand final despite being beaten in his heat over 461m at Elwick last night.

Hooked on Scotch ($1.40 fav) began only fairly from box four but looked set to find the lead as the field hit the home turn.

But the Jason Thompson-trained dog was shuffled back to fourth when Grey Ghost ($9.50) and Nitro Sambar ($6.50) crossed down to the rail.

Grey Ghost went on to defeat the favourite with Nitro Sambar a game third ahead of Freya the Slayer ($15).

It was an upset win as bookmakers had installed Hooked on Scotch a $1.80 favourite to win the final.

The five heat winners and the three fastest seconds progressed to the final and Hooked on Scotch was one of the quickest second placer.

Devonport Chase winner Stop Line delivered one of his best efforts to win his heat, defeating track specialist Peco Can that led and looked home until Stop Line found a clear passage entering the home straight. The Jillian Stamford-trained dog was strong when it counted to register his eighth win on the track and he will make his presence felt in next week’s Group 1 final.

Stamford said Stop Line was clearly the most consistent chaser she has trained, with this latest win his 31st from 50 starts.

The first upset arrived in the opening heat in which the long odds-on favourite Flynn ($1.30), a kennel mate of

Hooked on Scotch, missed a place.

Leica Prayer ($4.60) chartered a course through the field from the 340m boxes to find the lead and once clear powered home to score easily from race leader Black Taxi ($34) with Chilled Out ($31) and Clunes ($51) dead-heating for third. Flynn missed the start from box eight and suffered multiple checks to the home turn, and ran fifth hot on the heels of the minor placegetters.

Leica Prayer gave Stamford two runners in next week’s final.

The Ted Medhurst-trained Raging Ralston ($1.55) made his way into the final when he rattled home along the rails to score comfortably from the heavily backed Atley Quick ($4) with outsider Speedy Denholme ($51) third.

Medhurst secured his second finalist when Stanley Gordon finished second to Victorian Tiggerlong Tonk in the final heat of the series with the winner registering the fastest time (25.57) of the five heat winners.