Dyna Vikkers is the best greyhound Craig Roberts has trained for many reasons.
But it was his brain that was called into action in last night's $100,000 New Zealand Cup at Addington.
Dyna Vikkers left box 2 well enough, but sat in behind Cawbourne Brick - trained by Roberts' son, Matt, - up until the top of the home straight.
He looked left and right before pouncing through in the last 50m to beat Cawbourne Brick and give father bragging rights over son until Christmas time at least.
''He struck it twice in the race where things could have gone pear-shaped, but they didn't, and he worked his way past Cawbourne Brick,'' Craig Roberts said.
''Once he got balanced up and got the gap along the rails. I was never really panicking, but I was still thinking hurry up. It took him a bit longer to get past.
''But once he got round that first bend and just had one dog in front of him, I was pretty happy.''
Last night's cup is the fourth group 1 race in which the family have run the quinella and Roberts is happy the ledger remains in his favour.
''The good thing about that is that I've been the winner of three of them,'' he laughed.
Box speed is half the challenge in sprint races, and Paperbond has it in spades.
The Jean and Dave Fahey-trained sprinter flew out of box 6 and was never headed in the $30,000 group 1 Galaxy Sprint.
Dave Fahey is not the most enthusiastic trainer when it comes to group 1 races for the shorter distances, but he reckons he might have to change his tune.
''I wasn't a big fan of them but I am now.
''He's a brilliant box dog - I don't generally have a lot of sprinters and he's a good one to have.
Paperbond peaked on his run in last week's semifinal, finishing second, but Fahey expected the greyhound to get better between runs.
''I thought he would improve a bit. He had a quiet week the week before, to prime him for this week.''
