The final heat of the night was arguably the best as Graham Holland's Wolfe defeated Dorotas Wildcat by 1½ lengths, with the benefit of being drawn inside the defending champion in a time of 29.54.
Despite many troubled heats (caused by the large amount of greyhounds seeded rails) all of the major contenders made it through to round two and the trophy looked destined for an Irish victory at this stage.
Second wins were sealed for Liberty Hawk, Clonbrien Prince who recorded the second fastest time of 29.42 for the first night of the second round, Desperado Dan, Lemon Shane and Queen Beyonce but Lenson Blinder and Boylesports Xtra both crashed out.
The fourth heat saw the appearance of Skywalker Logan and after finding significant trouble and looking as though he was out he just managed to recover and qualify in third place behind Dower Rory who won despite being interfered with by Swift Jim on the run-in.
By a twist of fate a dead heat for third place between Front Edge and Trafalgar Cup champion King Sheeran would normally have required a run off but because Swift Jim had been disqualified both would enter the quarter-final draw.
In the first heat Priceless Blake ran well to hold off King Sheeran and Roxholme Glory but Droopys Verve could not overcome another bad trap draw and found trouble.
A competitive third heat saw Queen Beyonce come from behind to win and remain unbeaten, Clonbrien Prince battled with Paganini Show on the run-in but took second after overtaking the early leader Ballyanne Sim who claimed third.
The second heat resulted in a comfortable win for Clonbrien Prince from track record holder Skywalker Logan and Ballymac Tas (who held of Jaytee Taylor); the unbeaten Queen Beyonce failed to get any sort of run and got tangled up with Roxholme Glory.