Vaughan Clark knows greyhound form better than most.
Which is why he will be watching the first 50m of tonight's New Zealand Cup at Addington very intently.
A greyhound bookmaker for the New Zealand TAB up until 2008, Clark co-owns Dream Collector with the dog's former Australian trainers Shona and Dave Crawford, and has watched the son of Talk's Cheap change his racing pattern since moving across from Victoria to New Zealand.
''Unfortunately, he put in a couple of suspect chasing performances and got into trouble with the stipendiary stewards over here,'' Clark said.
''It's really been the New Zealand racing conditions, particularly with the finish-on lure, that's really got the dog's mind on the job and he's really gone from strength to strength since being there.''
But the major change to Dream Collector's racing style has come at the start, after being a ''slightly better'' starter in Melbourne, Clark said.
''In New Zealand, for some reason, we always see him last out of the boxes. In Australia, he was generally midfield away. His racing pattern seems to have changed somewhat but maybe that's due to him trying harder for the rest of the race and he takes it a bit easier at the start.
''The most important thing is he's chasing hard in New Zealand and keeping out of trouble.''
Clark's gaze will be firmly on the first few strides when the boxes open at the 520m mark, where Dream Collector jumps out of box 5 - traditionally not a great box in greyhound racing.
''I looked at the videos and the young dog in box 7, Kilchurn, I noticed he's got very good early pace and then after about five or six strides he likes to cut down to the rails,'' Clark said.
''I think that's probably a good thing because I expect Dream Collector to be last out then looking for the outside. I think Kilchurn might jam a few up on the inside and possibly the main dangers, Fast Archer and Blitzing Mayhem, are on the inside.
''With that in mind, Dream Collector might not have to go so wide to get around them.''
With analysis like that, it is obvious Clark has done his homework before his flight to Christchurch today, and he hopes he can add a maiden group 1 to the 2010 group 2 Galaxy Sprint he and friends Mark Rosanowski and Jason Tan won with Octane Spark.
Clark thinks Fast Archer and Kilchurn are the main dangers, although Blitzing Mayhem has had the better of Dream Collector at times in the North Island.
Clark and the Crawfords have the dog at the right kennels. Balcairn trainers Jean and Dave Fahey are the masters at winning feature races, illustrated by the fact they also qualified Opawa Tom and Jinjarango for the final.
''It's up to Dave to get the dog as well as he possibly can and from there, it's just a matter of holding your breath and crossing your fingers and hopefully the dog works it out for himself, because with his racing style, you're always possibly prone to bad luck.''
