Cursed won his heat last Monday from box one, while Aston Sapporo led before finishing third in the other heat from the seven.

Aston Sapporo has again drawn seven for the final, while Cursed is alongside him in six. The top three from the race move into semi-finals of the Million Dollar Chase series at Wentworth Park on October 9.

Aston Sapporo was an $11 TAB chance, while Cursed was $12 for the final. Whitfield, for Sawyers Gully trainer Darryl Thomas, has box one and was equal favourite with Mark Moroney-trained Fire Legend at $2.60.

Fire Legend has box two and won his heat in 24.88 seconds last week, 1.5 lengths ahead of Whitfield, which finished well after a troubled run from box five.

Aston Sapporo appeared to be hampered by a pelvic injury in his heat but Mackay's daughter, April, said he seemed to have recovered.

She hoped the early speed of Miss Granger and Bumpy Black out of boxes three and four respectively would hinder the inside runners and give her pair a better chance.

"There's a bit of speed under us and they want to go left, so that's the key," she said. "If we can run around 7.79 to the mark like we did last week, we'll be right up there."

Cursed used the inside draw well to lead and win his heat in 25.1.

"He went super and we were really impressed with that," she said. "All we wanted was for him to begin and go because he's had five tickets for fighting. We were impressed with how he drove up under them."

Mackay already has Gardens final runner-up Aston Lee and new addition Stinger Noir in the semis. Stinger Noir is a qualifier as the Queensland sprint champion. Aston Lee was an impressive winner over 520m at Wentworth Park on Saturday night.

"We were over the moon with that and he's on the way up," she said.

"He put nine on them in a blink and that Awesome Catch kept coming but he kicked again."

If Cursed and Aston Sapporo fail to qualify on Monday night, they will compete in Wentworth Park prelude qualifiers on Saturday night.

Maitland final: 1. Whitfield, 2. Fire Legend, 3. Miss Granger, 4. Bumpy Black, 5. Ebby Infrared, 6. Cursed, 7. Aston Sapporo, 8. Hudson Bolt. Reserves: 9. Winlock Sunshine, 10. Speed Predator.