National Sprint Semi Finals Preview

The Arena Racing Company National Sprint semi-finals take place at Nottingham’s Colwick Park stadium this evening.  Below I take a look at the 3 semi-finals as well as supporting opens over both 500m and 480m.

In the 500m Standard at 734pm Angie Kibble’s Ballymac Conti will obviously warrant plenty of respect.  Eliminated from the Eclipse at the first-round stage he’s since been freshened up with a couple of spins around home track Swindon.  The trial runs have been fair enough without being exceptional and on value grounds a chance is taken with Gavin Holman’s Easy Warrior who could well ping from trap 3 and if doing so definitely has the pace to clear the inside pair by the bend.  If he does so he’d not be picked up and could well be backable at a more than decent price especially for those able to avail themselves of the often ridiculous but often admittedly unattainable early prices.

The first semi-final of the ARC National Sprint at 806pm and Angela Harrison’s Coolavanny Galiv looks a good thing to follow up on his impressive heat win from what was a tricky looking draw.  Tonight’s make up looks anything but tricky and a level break should soon see this take up the running before powering away for a statement victory that can announce ‘Galviv’ as a serious candidate both for this competition and indeed any other sprint comp which he’s entered in the foreseeable future.  One of only a handful of greyhounds currently capable of laying claim to be a sprinter of the highest class.  Tinreach Jet can qualify in second for Paul Donovan whilst Alex Hopkins local runner Dame Gladys took an absolute flyer from the lids last time out and if doing so again couldn’t totally be ruled out from turning in behind the selection at what will be huge odds.

Semi-final 2 at 821pm is now a 5-runner affair after the unfortunate withdrawal of Stuart Tighe’s Sonic Emjay.  Shrewd Call as can fairly often be the case made an absolute ‘horlicks’ of the start in last week’s heat.  The makeup of the race however allowed him the privilege of still be able to pace up and win even if he did so and that’s exactly what he did.  That scenario is once again possible in a race where even a poor start shouldn’t be enough to stop David Mullins greyhound and if he does come away anything like level then the result will be a formality from a very early stage.  Across The Field can take second for Kim Billingham and join Shrewd Call in next week’s final.

Semi-final 3 can go to Patrick Janssens sensational greyhound Crossfield Dusty.  The Scurry Gold Cup winner at Perry Barr in October has suffered just one defeat in his last 9 starts and that came when far from disgraced in a top-class Sovereign Stakes Final at Towcester.  Ideally housed here in trap 3 he can ping out and make all.  Mindhowyougo can qualify in second for Stuart Tighe and his team and give them some compensation for the no doubt hard hitting withdrawal of ‘Emjay’ from the previous race.

The 480m open at 911pm is an open only in name.  Six locally trained greyhounds and decent ones at that however not one outside entry is a sad indictment for an open taking place on semi-final night of one of the sport’s most prestigious competitions.  Paul White’s Waddos Billy has a draw to dream of against the rail and with anything like his normal break will take all the beating.