Betts’ veteran Snoop Stride booked his place in the $13,000 final of the Star Trek Series this Friday when he scored a narrow win in the second of the heats conducted at Dubbo Paceway on Sunday.

With gun Dubbo youngster Tom Pay in the sulky, Snoop Stride was sent out a $2.80 favourite and did the right thing by punters in one of the closest finishes on the card.

On the line the six-year-old had a half-head to spare over Brocks Under Fire ($4.40, Nathan Turnbull), who had earlier won the first heat on the program.

As the sole runner on the back row, Pay was always going to have plenty of options.

But he would have had a small giggle to himself when he was able to navigate off the pegs and into the one out, two back position shortly after the start.

Up front it was Brocks Under Fire who was setting the tempo, with I’m Toasmasta ($9.90, Nathan Carroll) sitting outside the lead.

The lead time of 38.8s was almost one second slower than that recorded in the first heat.

Turnbull was able to get away with a couple of cheap sectionals early, with the first two quarters of the last mile run in 31.3s and 31.1s respectively.

Pay got moving aboard Snoop Stride as the field heard the bell to signal the final lap.

The pair quickly rushed up into second placing and appeared to be cruising.

But just as Snoop Stride appeared on the scene, Turnbull slipped a little leather to his drive and Brocks Under Fire also quickened.

The duo quickly paired off and when the field reached the 400m mark it had developed into a match race.

Brocks Under Fire appeared to be doing enough to keep Snoop Stride at bay but under the vigorous urgings of Pay, the latter did just enough in the drive to the line.

The official margin was a half-head, with a further 12.9m back to the third-placed Rowdy’s Ace ($4.40, Jordan Reynolds).

Unsurprisingly, given the first half was run so slowly, the overall time of 2:40.3 and mile rate of 2:01.7 weren’t quite as quick as the first heat.

Sunday’s win was the 11^th of Snoop Stride’s 85-start career and took his career earnings to almost $75,000.

With the heat win under his belt, the next task for Snoop Stride will be to do what most think impossible – beat raging Star Trek favourite Blue Moon Rising in the series final.

The three-year-old, prepared by Lauren and Shane Tritton, was dynamic winning his heat of the series at Bathurst last Wednesday and will start well into the red in Friday’s final.

A winner of nine races from 10 starts, Blue Moon Rising ran a mile rate of 1:59.3 over the 2260m journey, with Lauren Tritton not having to pull the persuader in the process.