Mark Pierrepont
The greyhounds will head to traps this coming Friday 2nd October for their first round heats of the Star Sports Bookmakers & ARC English Greyhound Derby.
Some 175 days later than initially planned the 96 runners will be carrying the hopes and dreams of their owners, trainers and breeders and dreaming that come Saturday October 31, the name of their greyhound will be etched into the most famous trophy in the sport.
Of the 96 entries for the competition 59 were declared rails seeds, 23 as middle and just 14 as wide.
Last year, with twice the number of entries, the comparative numbers were 116, 53, and 23. Which means that the proportion of railers is virtually unchanged though there are comparatively fewer middles and more wides.
As for the winning traps during last year’s Derby: 63 races: T1-8, T2-15, T3-14, T4-14, T5-7, T6-5.
Amongst the 96 there will be 5 British bred greyhounds attempting to lift the trophy:Amka Rofe for Swindon’s Robert Smith, King Cash and King Dylan for Liz and Rab McNair, Sharp Darcy for Seamus Cahill and Romeo Rumble for John Mullin’s being the five in question.
James Pryce, greyhound trader at Ladbrokes has compiled a market for top British bred greyhound and he said “It’s a competitive market and I simply can’t split the five contenders, I’ve initially put all 5 in at 10/3 giving a book of 115%. I’ll let the market decide from there!”.
Amongst the fairer sex there are 7 bitches attempting to emulate the successes of Sarahs Bunny, Greta Renee, Narrogar Ann and most recently Farloe Verdict.
It’s invariably an extremely tough assignment however Churchill Holly for Lynn Cook, Velvet Juliet, Waltham Magic and Coolavanny Bani all for Angela Harrison, Newinn Liz for Ernie Gaskin and Irish challenger Coolavanny Chick for Noel Hehir all step up to the plate.
Again Ladbrokes James Pryce has compiled a market for a bitch to win the Derby and for anybody tempted the price at time of writing is 12/1.
In the main ante post market and having been fortunate enough to have been amongst the few at track side for the majority of the trial stakes and trial sessions I have been left most impressed by Deanridge Rapid for trainer Alison Kelly-Pilgrim and owners Ray Dean and Paul Surridge.
Known in Ireland as Ballymac Notisme where he was bred, reared and initially trained by the fearsome Ballymac team led by Liam Dowling, this August 2018 son of Ballymac Best x Ballymac Cameo won his first and second round heats of the Bar One Racing Irish Sprint Cup at Dundalk before being eliminated in round three.
He then headed to Shelbourne for the Boylesports Irish Derby however got behind early and in honesty never got competitive. So far as the English Derby is concerned though this maybe a blessing in disguise.
Connections have ensured that he’s gained valuable experience of the Nottingham circuit with him having 4 impressive runs under his belt over the past few weeks, the highlight of which came when recording 29.39 (+20) in a trial on 7th September.
It was some run considering he didn’t manage to clear Ted Soppitt’s Blackstone Milo until between bends 3-4 and from that point home he really began to pull away from a greyhound who himself is far from anybody’s mug.
He has an excellent draw in red for his first round heat and touch wood should have little problem qualifying for the second round. Sponsors Star Sports saw heavy each way support for him at 125/1 in the hours proceeding his 29.39 trial and though he now trades with them at 22/1 he is still available at 33s if you shop around. I expect him to go deep into the competition.
There has been much debate about the run of Graham Holland’s Newinn Session in the past couple of days.
Personally I thought the Simon Taylor owned greyhound moved effortlessly around the track when stopping the clock in 29.80 off the back of a 4.99 split.
I thought it was a terrific run from a greyhound who had only just travelled over from Ireland in the hours before and was having his first run since eliminated from the Irish Derby in the first round over a month previously. Did people expect him to shatter the track record first look around under such circumstances?
Heavily supported in the past 10 days or so from 33/1 into between 8/1 – 11/1 best supporters on at the bigger prices should be more than happy with themselves at this stage. That said he can’t afford any mistakes in what looks to be the heat of the first round on Saturday.
He lines up against Irish Derby finalist Kilara Icon, owned by Dubai based Gary Hicks and now trained at the Salacres Racing Team establishment headed by Peter Harnden as well as Patrick Janssens exceptionally talented Bockos Doomie who won the Sussex Cup down at Hove last month for owners Beverley Lochead and Austin Whelan. Ernie Gaskin’s Newinn Liz was very impressive when landing a trial stakes here last time out in 29.58.
Any greyhound trained by John McGee snr always demands respect and his Swanley Flight lines up, as does Berties Blake for Carol Grasso who recorded 29.65 in a trial last week. It’s a superb heat which would grace any round of the Derby never mind the first stage.
With wide seeded greyhound almost certain to be well drawn throughout the competition it would be folly not to include at least one or two in your ante post portfolios.
Matt Dartnall’s Distant Village is one such greyhound. Despite numerous visits to the track in recent weeks he is only just getting fully to grips with the contours of the circuit.
His winning effort in a trial stakes last time out when recording 29.53 despite still leaving a little room for improvement in his running of the final turn showcases this dog’s ability.
Owned by the Distant Relations Syndicate he’s well worth including amongst your bets and is available at a general 50/1 including at sponsors Star Sports Greyhounds.
I would also be adding a greyhound that is currently trading as the outsider of the whole Derby field. Though no English Greyhound Derby heat could be described as easy, the heat drawn by Romeo Rumble trained by John Mullin’s and owned by Dave Firmager could have been much worse.
Drawn in his preferred position of trap 6 he is in a field full of greyhounds who will be looking for positions much nearer the rail, he enjoys Nottingham, is a proven category one winner here when landing last year’s renewal of the British Breeders Stakes and was also a semi finalist here in the Eclipse.
Rumble heads into the Derby off the back of a 29.93 trial when narrowly beaten behind Carl Perry’s Geelo Josh and most recently when beating kennel mate Smallmead by 1 3/4 in 29.91. He’s recently been racing over in Ireland where he made the final of the Corn Cuchulainn at Shelbourne so he’s in decent form.
A proven competition winner at the track, in excellent hands with John Mullins, will receive his draw throughout, stays well, 25 times in the first 3 places home from 40 runs he’s a greyhound who always gives his all. With a plot draw in the first round he really must be supported each way at 300/1 with Ladbrokes (widely at 250/1, or 175/1 with the sponsors).
A mega gamble was landed on the track record being broken during the event in 2019, Star Sports priced up the event occurring at a generous 5/2 and were quickly obliged.
Supporters didn’t have long to wait to be paid out, some less than others if Star Sports representative Lofty is to be believed, as the strong running Skywalker Logan hit the front by the second bend in his first round heat before sauntering to a 6 length success and a 29.05 run.
I’m not convinced the track is running quite so quickly at the moment and would be surprised to see the clock in any danger this year.
On a lighter note sponsors Star Sports Bookmakers have introduced betting for the annual GWA Media tipping competition. Staged throughout the competition and with the scoring compiled diligently on the excellent www.bagsracing.com website by Paul Millward it’s always a fiercely competitive event.
With plenty of decent judges involved as well as more than a few guess merchants and even those who just prefer to phone a friend, it once again promises to add plenty of banter and entertainment to proceedings over the coming weeks. Initially put in at odds of 20/1 I have done what I always will at the first sign of a lack of respect and attempted to make Ben Keith pay in the best way possible, odds on myself having halved to a much more realistic 10/1.
Dave Clark heads the betting at a ridiculously short 7/1, group horses in handicaps have been the quickest route to the poor house for many a year whilst a wholesale gamble in the past 48 hours have seen the odds of Billy Brennan shortening from 28/1 to 8s.
