Carrum Downs pizza shop proprietor Jihad Talgi is chasing $150,000 in ‘dough’.

But he won’t be ‘mixing flour with water’. It’s the real folding stuff we’re talking about!

Talgi bred, owns and trains champion Schillaci, which is not a ‘medium half-and-half’ sprinter. He’s one ‘with the lot’!

Schillaci is contesting the invitational $233,250 Group 1 Sportsbet Topgun (525m) – Race 10, 9.29pm – at The Meadows on Saturday night. It’s the opening stanza of the $4.1 million Dream Chasers Festival.

The Topgun is for the ‘best of the best’ – dubbed the sport’s Cox Plate – and the ‘best 30 seconds in greyhound racing’.

A winner of 10 races from 15 starts, Schillaci (Jun ’21 Hard Style Rico x Flying Hareeba) has drawn the coveted box one in the race. He’s on the second line of Sportsbet’s market at $2.90, behind Alpha Zulu ($2.30).

WATCH: SCHILLACI (B5) clocks a sizzling 29.25sec at Sandown Park on October 26.

“This dog has taken me on a journey. How do you sell something when you’ve been waiting so long for it?”

Talgi added he’s “very excited to draw the ‘red’”.

“Hopefully he can get out and lead and do the job. He needs to take advantage of it.

“But it’s his first start at The Meadows and I really don’t know how he’ll handle the track in a full field. However, he’s very reliable out of the boxes.

“And a Topgun victory would be a nice birthday present as I turn 54 on Monday (November 13).”

Talgi has twice refused $100,000 for his once-in-a-lifetime superstar. But he has no regrets – even after he sustained an Achilles tendon injury at his second start and spent four months on the sidelines.

But he has returned in sterling style and looked every inch a potential megastar during a recent South Australian foray where he picked up the G3 SA Derby and the Match Race Challenge which earned him a ‘golden ticket’ into the Adelaide Cup final.

“This dog has taken me on a journey. How do you sell something when you’ve been waiting so long for it?

“It’s taken 25 years, but he’s finally arrived!

“He’s such a great chaser. I haven’t had anything like it. He goes so hard for the first two splits, sometimes he tires himself out.”

Based in Devon Meadows, Talgi says competing in the Topgun with Schillaci –

namesake of an eight-time G1-winning grey-coloured sprinter of the early ’90s trained by Lee Freedman – is surreal.

“You wait for so long to try to get into these races. You see these races every year and you dream of being in them. It’s a dream come true!”

Schillaci trialled 5.17sec/17.78/30.19 at The Meadows on November 2 followed by a 22.92sec post-to-post at Sandown Park on Monday in preparation for the Topgun.

“Following the Topgun, he’ll either contest the (G3) Shootout or a Melbourne Cup Prelude,” Talgi said.

Talgi added Schillaci showed ability from ‘day one’.

‘Next big thing’ ALPHA ZULU 📷 Clint Anderson

“He broke-in nice. He only had three runs at the breakers; he was a ‘tail wagger’ and it got infected.

“However, at his first trial out of the ‘puppy boxes’ at Ballarat, he ran 17.72sec and I thought, wow!

“And from there, every time he trialled, he freaked me out.”

Talgi makes around 600 pizzas a week but says “training greyhounds is easier”.

“You don’t have to deal with staff,” he quipped.

And Talgi can see the day when he stops making pizzas to train greyhounds on a full-time basis.

“Yes, not long I hope,” came his succinct reply.

Will it be a case of Topgun ‘Amore’ for Talgi?