All England Cup 1st Round Preview

The ARC All England Cup gets underway this evening with six first round heats at Newcastle.  The ‘North East Derby’ is always a classy affair and though the line-up does have a more local feel than the majority of years it’s to be hoped that an improvement in the current first prize of £8000 to a more acceptable albeit still hugely improvable £20000 results in many more entries from further afield.

Heat 1 see’s the greyhounds head to traps at 641pm and we get an immediate glimpse of Angela Harrison’s ante post favourite Coolavanny Aunty.  A hugely classy bitch with a whole host of classy wins to her name.  A finalist in the Puppy Classic ‘Aunty’ subsequently won the bitches race on the inaugural ‘Judgement Night’ at Nottingham and more recently added deserved competition success to her cv when going unbeaten through the Empress Stakes at Towcester.  Her most recent competitive outing came when eliminated from the Oaks at Perry Barr in mid-October and though left off the card since her comeback trials over tonight’s course and distance show that she’s ready for tonight’s return to action and is selected to lead by the time they head down the back straight and seal the race by the third.

Heat 2 at 716pm can see Angela Harrison land a quick competition double with her Brynoffa Lloyd looking a good bet to land the spoils.  He’s a real classy dog and it would be no surprise to see him land a big competition at some point.  Eliminated from the Steel City Cup at the semi-final stage he was the knocked out of the Eclipse at the first hurdle.  This competition has been the target ever since though and a couple of trials put him spot on for an impressive trial stakes victory over Julie Bateson’s Gonzo who finds himself reopposing here.  A level start should be all ‘Lloyd’ needs to soon kick on and take this race in style.

 

 

Heat 3 at 751pm could well see the Harrison camp in dreamland as they’re recent Eclipse finalist Hardy Rebel could be set to provide the team with a treble.  ‘Rebel’ has early pace to die for and has a dream of a draw with which to use it.  He’s fancied to pace up the length of the Newcastle run up taking strong command by the turn and kicking away to make all.

 

Heat 4 at 806pm and I’m siding with a greyhound who looks as if he’ll be very well suited by the move to a more galloping circuit than the tight contours of Sunderland where he’s been racing of late.  Despite not particularly looking at home around Sunderland Peter Ancell’s Borna Dime reached the final of the Classic.  He should be much more at home over this course and distance and has fell into a heat which wouldn’t take as much winning as some of the others.  Tonight could well be the night for the shrewd Ancell team to land a touch and a small each way play in the ante post markets at big odds could well pay dividends.

Heat 5 can go the way of Ted Soppitt’s classy Skywalker Stan.  Perfectly housed against the rail it looks likely that Tom Heilbron’s Little Venture will ping out and get out of the way early leaving a solo in behind against the rail for Soppitt’s charge.  ‘Stan’ can take command along the back straight and run on strongly for an emphatic success.

 

Heat 6 will see Angela Harrison’s Droopys Hooray line up as a strong favourite and likely deservedly so.  He ran out a good winner of a trial stake here last week and is well at home around here.  At the likely prices though I’m siding with Gary Ferguson’s Frankies Jet who despite getting the start all wrong last week took the eye with some decent middle and late running.  He’s some very high-class form on his card and if the ‘travelling man’ Gary Ferguson and his partner in crime Billy Thomson have got ‘Frankies’ ready then he could ping out and make all at what could very well be a very tasty price.