LITTER-MATES Zenas Zeus and Shoot The Bolt headlined Monday’s semi-finals of the 72nd British Bred 2 Year Old Produce Stakes at Swindon.

Members of the Tullymurry Act-Westmead Lola Oct 2016 batch, the pair won their heats in great, albeit in contrasting, fashion – the Jenny March-trained Zenas Zeus making all in 29.14sec in the first semi, before his brother Shoot The Bolt finished fastest of all to snatch victory in the second semi in a fastest-of-the-day 29.07sec.

The litter was bred by Paul Attwater from his Dorchester, Dorset, base and he was naturally delighted to see the pair win their Produce Stakes semi-finals – both now having a crack at the £15,000-to-the-winner final which forms part of a gala card at the Blunsdon track on Saturday. All the litter have won races reported Attwater.

“These two would be the best of them, and Jenny’s doing a great job with Zeus,” he said. “My brother Neil owns Shoot The Bolt and he’d been running for Wayne Wrighting at Hove before coming to us for a crack at the Produce.

“It just made sense for him to come to us for the Produce, and we’re loving it! Thankfully he knows where the winning line in, because that was a good semi-final, but he’s flown up the home straight to win and we’re in the final. Having said that, with Money Marciano one side and Decoy Junior the other side, he’ll have to do everything right.”

The Attwater family have a long tradition in greyhound racing with Paul and Neil’s father, Harry, well known for running dogs with the Caloona prefix – although it was his association with a Nick Savva-bred runner Westmead Lynx which might have led to their success so far in this year’s Produce Stakes.

“Dad had Lynx and we always fancied another Westmead and contacted Wayne (Wrighting) while Westmead Lola was running for him. We asked if we could breed from her and struck a pup deal with the Smith brothers, who owned her then. She’s now here with us and her litter is doing great. I’ve got a couple down graded at Poole, but all have won races and are still improving. Their still very young, of course.”

Zenas Zeus made all to land the spoils in his semi-final from the Pat Curtin-trained Mitchells Angel (Millwards Angel-Millwards Katy, Oct 16), while in a desperate finish it was Heather Dimmock’s Raise The Stakes who finished second, just a short-head in front of Lowgate Rudy. It was the best finish of the competition so far.

The third semi-final went to Kevin Cobbold’s Decoy Junior (Romantic Rambo-A New Venture, July 2016) as the home-bred finished well to head affairs approaching the final turn and lead home long-time leader Money Marciano (Farloe Blitz-Brinkleys Tinsel, June 16) in 29.18sec for the 480m of the British Breds-only competition.

Clive Oseman, racing manager at Swindon, said: “It looks a very competitive final. The draw has worked out well with a good distribution of seeds and a case could be made for any of the runners. We’re really looking forward to it.”

Saturday’s Produce Stakes Final draw: 1 Raise The Stakes, 2 Mitchells Angel, 3 Money Marciano (m), 4 Shoot The Bolt (m), 5 Decoy Junior (m), 6 Zenas Zeus (w).