Its been another mixed week with good and bad news. Things started badly last Friday when our ante post favourite Evanta Fantasy went out in the first round of the Golden Sprint at Romford.
She chose that night to miss her break and it was all over. But What A Laugh was a nice bonus on the night.
He came through the grades at Yarmouth but didn’t really take to Towcester.
We gave him a maiden at Romford which he won well. He was then beaten in a tougher race and then won his first round heat in 24.31 (-20) after coming out under the lids (3.72 sect).
He is a progressive type and if he traps like that again he should make the final.
We didn’t have anything in the Puppy Derby at Monmore but sent some others along for the other competitions.
I was very disappointed by the going on the inside at Monmore and some of our runners just couldn’t act on it, notably Domino Storm and Blackstone Marco.
Billys Bullet was also beaten and I thought he produced a great feat to qualify. He came off the track a tired dog.
If I was a punter, I would keep an eye on the going in the early races. If it is running equally well on the inside, then I would expect our dogs to go well.
I will be trialling the first of our potential Trainers Championship runners this week at Sittingbourne.
Blonde Nipper, Vanrooney, Swift Whirlwind and Cloud Buster will eventually be joined by some of the Monmore runners plus the likes of Blue Moment and Adageo Bob who is returning from a break.
The event is still a couple of weeks away and although the opposition suggest it could be an absolute classic, I cannot remember us having a stronger team.
We had a winner (Calco Flyer) at Sheffield on Tuesday night, which was great for his connections who are from Leeds.
But apart from that, little else went to plan. Not only did our ‘Queen Mother’ runner Black Francis fail to qualify, but we had a second van break down on the way home.
This time it was terminal, with a turbo blowing up and destroying the engine. That is £10,000 that I have had to find today for a new van and that kind of money isn’t easily earned in this business.
I have been following the political situation with some interest and am excited about the prospect of Ian Lavery MP being considered as a possible chairman of the GBGB.
Ian has had dogs with me and previously with Linda (Jones). He is a great enthusiast for this industry and I am convinced he would be a perfect choice.
