Well, you ain’t never caught a rabbit and you ain’t no friend of mine?

BY KAAN HUGHES

The opening line to the famous Elvis Presley song, ‘Hound Dog’…well he did nearly catch the rabbit (lure), and he is certainly a friend of mine, and almost everyone at Poole. How could you not be taken by the performance he put up last week. Rab stated in his column, there were people at the track purely there to support this dog, see him in the flesh, have a photo taken with him.

Children asking for Rabs autograph, I’m not joking, as well as many other shenanigans he will remember on his trip to the seaside. Rab did say to me he felt a bit silly, but I said to him why?

This is what the sport needs, this dog is a superstar and to entice kids into the sport to see them come racing and watch him is what they want, if it means you signing a race card and a photo of a dog works, then that’s what is needed.

It was a small thing for him to do, give those a photo with this star but that will go a long way in and be remembered for a long time by those who dreamed of meeting him. It just takes these little things to really make someone’s day or get them hooked on our beloved sport. Now let’s get down to business and preview what awaits us

The RPGTV Golden Crest Semis feature at Poole tonight with the first of those live at 7.52pm. Remember that only two will qualify from each of the 3 semis and book their place in Sundays final on the south coast where they will go to traps for the £4,000 decider.

 

Bull Run Byte

The first of those features Bull Run Byte, who was advised ante post before the competition started.

Last week when recording a winning time of 26.56 (+10) she was not best away and edged across to the rails on the way to the bend.

After riding a bump, she stretched her legs to draw clear and win convincingly by three lengths.

Drawn outside a slow breaker she has room to manoeuvre. The biggest rival will be Ower Boy Bullet in trap 6 who was chasing the shadow of outright favourite King Elvis, and after getting a slight bump at the bend was a good second recoding 26.72 (+10).

Ace Queen

He has an ideal draw out wide with the five, Beaming Brae looking to edge in a little and Boynepark Flight in four with such good early potentially holding the former up. An impressive improver was the bitch in one, Ace Queen trained by Jamie Kingsley who found over half a second on her first look at the circuit which can certainly give you an indication of how much a look at the track can benefit some dogs.

Overall, Bull Run Byte can improve again and trap better. She is a real force to be reckoned with and this bitch can be a major player this year in her category and should seal her ticket to the final.

The other place looks a match between Ace Queen and Ower Boy Bullet from where the latter looks the best drawn and should steer clear out of trouble to give June Harvey a finalist in only his second start back from a forced layoff.

All photos: Josh Sealey

Two races later at 8.23pm the second semi-final takes place and once again it looks to be the Kevin Hutton trained Snooty Mary who will be first from this race to put herself in the final with another slick exit. She can improve on last week’s 4.27 sectional and the overall 26.60 (+10).

Snooty Mary

What you must remember is that it is only her second run over further than 400m for a little while so she will have strengthened up.

Killcree Diamond in two for Rick Zamojski looks to be a tremendous purchase for new connections with a perfect trap to line victory recording the second fastest time of the heats with a 26.48 (+10).

The sectional was the most eye catching and 4.20 was the fastest. To say he came under the bars would have summarised it well.

This week he is drawn on the outside of Kimpton Charlie who ran well to qualify from his heat after a quick turn-around from his previous race but looks up against it here.

Jet Stream Proof is the bitch who could seal a place in the final out wide with a good draw where the five will be edging in. The Peter Swadden trained Jet Stream has been a credit to connections around her local track and looks ideally suited to Poole.

She improved from her trial and can certainly do so again. The bitch in five, Dunbolg Hanna gave a great performance to win last week at 20/1 and set up the Jamie Kingsley double but will need to be foot perfect again as the dog drawn in side for Patrick Curtin is a big 38kg fast starter who will hold his ground to the bend. No run up to the bend last week he done well to produce such a quick sectional but will need to try and get around two leading fancies.

They say that you save the best till last, well that is certainly the case in this last semi-final at 8.51pm where it could be worthy of the final. That is not to say that any of the other semi-final runners wouldn’t be in here as they certainly could. But this race serves up an unbelievable line up. Heading the race is King Elvis who many questioned over his quick turnaround from the Silver Salver final on the Sunday to the first round here on the Tuesday last week without a trial. But if what I said earlier is to go by, that a look at the track can benefit ‘some dogs’ ok, most.

Then Elvis producing a 26.21 (+10) one spot outside the long-standing track record of 26.20 by Daddyknowsbest is quite frightening. He has drawn five this week and I think that is better. He edged wide run up and didn’t exactly trap but the long run to the corner saw him open up and rail like he’d been at Poole his whole career.

Racing down the far side it was a case of how far, although in between the last two bend I feel they closed a little and he took a breather before opening up again on the downhill run in. Elvis has also not run over a distance of this since December when he ran at Sheffield, so even Elvis could have stripped fitter for the distance.

Quite staggering to any regular at Poole is the way he handled the first and second bends. Speaking to the racing office, I was told that the hare driver remarked he has never had to accelerate the hare so fast in his whole career of driving at the stadium. Not such a walk in the Park as this race may sound, Clash drawn inside him for June Harvey who if things go to plan earlier in the evening could have her second finalist.

Last week I mentioned he may be older but Clash certainly knows how to perform. His run in the heats is probably the worst he has trapped in a long time and he cannot afford to do that here but with a normal exit I would expect him to resume service and follow Elvis around.

Mottos Moon in three found trouble everywhere and after producing such a good trial at the track shows he has more scope and on known form he can produce better, but will have to clear the two of Arthur Noodle who done a serious amount of running last week when looking to exit the competition before it had really begun. She checked the first bend, was crowded everywhere but stayed on late. Seeming to cause her own trouble she could not have asked for a better draw outside Milllabbey Thelma who is not the quickest away on the rails. Thelma stayed on well after one of the slower starts of all the semi-finalists.

Grabbing third on the line she will have to improve her starting but being drawn in red she will get a nice run around the bend. Another also stated last week that when she does get the boxes right can put up a quick run, could that be tomorrow?

The other dog in this race comes from the Heather Dimmock trained Down To The Felt in stripes who was slightly disappointing when breaking ok and just one paced ran on to qualify after not showing much. Suffice to say in this heat you will have to be at your best. But how can you overlook Elvis.

There are two other supporting opens on the card. The first of which is a sprint and Claires Turbo looks tremendously drawn outside four railers with the tightest of those drawn in four. He has been beating many of these in top grade events and in what looks a nice position to work from he should prevail.

The other race is a 640m stayers event where Heather Dimmocks Pennys Luna could make all after posting a good run over 515m last week, and winning at Sheffield over 660m a few weeks ago may just be too classy from the front.

It looks to serve up some good open race action and we can look forward to some stars on show strutting their stuff looking to cement their place in Sundays final. Fingers crossed it will entice people to enter for the supporting opens as the card really does need to serve up some tasty action on such a high profiled night. I will stick with my two picks from the start of Bull Run Byte and King Elvis advised at 25/1 and 2/1, 5/2 in places respectively. I wish the best of luck to all connections and will report back looking ahead to the weekends final in due course.

 

Be lucky

Kaan