He won the first heat of the Tara Greyhound Equipment Maiden series (340m) at Tamworth in what proved to be the fastest time of 20.56 seconds.

“He’s a pretty good young dog,” Harland said.

“It’s only his first start for me.

“I got him from Dean Turley over at Casino.”

The dog is not the quickest out of the boxes but it didn’t matter on Saturday.

Cattle Boy was close enough in the straight to use his speed to good effect and will now be one of the favourites for the final next Saturday.

“He flew home and won it by a head,” Harland said.

“He’ll be a fair chance but I will probably draw the five.

“It doesn’t matter because he’s a slow starter anyway.

“He’s in with a chance.

“It’s a handy time.” 

Cattle Boy is the only locally trained dog to win a heat.

The others went to Hunter Valley dogs Sparked The War (Garry Kedwell) in 20.89 and Driven A Bentlee (Brendon Williams) in 20.85.

One of the other local winners on Saturday, Downunder Diva, will go for three in a row for Manilla’s Michael Ruttley at today’s New Years meeting at Tamworth.

The black bitch won the Jesse and Kaleb Appreciation 4/5th Grade (340m) on Saturday.

“She jumped well and led,” Ruttley said.

“Won it in 20.03.

“I’ve had her for six starts and she’s won three, all here.

“I got her from a bloke in Brisbane.”

Tamworth has a 10-race meeting today (TUES) to kick off 2013 featuring the heats of the Kooty Meats 3/4th grade series.

Downunder Diva will run in the third heat of that series and Ruttley hopes she can qualify for the final, also to be run on Saturday.