Another fabulous Cat One weekend for the champion trainer. In less than 48 hours, Mark Wallis landed his sixth Essex Vase and then kept the Blue Riband title in the kennel.
Unless you saw the Coral Essex Vase Final you might wonder how a 35.32 winner could possibly get the POW selection, given there were sub 35.00 runs on the same night, along with a 23.64 run by Hawkfield Mia and a 23.77 run by puppy Billis Blazer. But for sheer guts, track craft and determination to win, you will struggle to see a better performance than Aayamza Magic in the £10K final. It was awesome – and not dissimilar to his semi final run. For the record the previous five were Eye Onthe Veto (2006/7), Reel Trickyone (2013), Adageo Bob (2015), Antigua Romeo (2021). Old boss Linda Jones also won a couple.
Then on Sunday, Hopes Paddington – led on parade by former kennelmate Ivy Hill Skyhigh, repeated his 29.15 semi final win to land the Blue Riband at Towcester. That’s two Cat Ones in four weeks, a third of the 2022 total.
The PGR Golden Jacket is almost on us and some of the likely contenders were flexing their muscles on Saturday morning. None were more impressive that Pat Curtin’s Olga who romped up by eight lengths in her trialstake clocking a very useful 45.38.
Tom Heilbron’s Dubh Casta landed Nottingham’s sprint final on Monday, but it was kennelmate Freedom Epic who produced the run of the night. The Steel City Cup finalist won the fastest heat of a 480m sweep with a 28.84 run.
The following night, the kennel were at it again as Darbys Delight stepped up on his 38.78 for Sheffield’s 660m with a fabulous, 38.42. It was the fastest clock over course and distance since Billys Bullet’s 38.29 in 2015.
On Friday night another Geordie raid saw the £10,000 BGBF British Bred Puppy Cup Final go to Carl Jackson’s Watchhall Sid. He qualified into A5 at Newcastle last November and has now won six of his 11 races.
Next up will be the Northern Puppy Derby where Kilara Scottie will also be expected to go to traps on Thursday night at Newcastle. Alex Hopkins’ March whelp landed marginally the fastest of last week’s two trialstakes.
Hove staged opens over three distances at the weekend. The most impressive winner was locally bred sprinter Molly Maid who completed a hat-trick with a 16.33 (-20) run for the 285m.
No opens at Harlow this week, but it was Maurice Rice’s prolific open winner Jura Go Max (PB: 25.94) who produced an open class 26.55 (-20) in A5. And he returned at 5-2! There was a similar story at Swindon. No opens but a classy A1 won by a hound with a string of open class successes on his CV, both at Swindon and elsewhere, Ballymac Conti (PB: 27.93).
Glenpadden Onyx, who was beaten in his last graded race at Swindon, an A2, continues to enjoy the bigger Central Park circuit. Now handled by Tony Collett, the 36 kilo black clocked a calculated 29.01 when the most impressive winner of the track’s Sunday afternoon opens. He already had a calculated 29.10 on his card.
Suffolk Downs had a mixed week. The Monday fixture was frozen off, the Thursday ran a second slow, but home bred 17 month old Bodell Freddie lit up the Friday card with the fastest run of the week.
The toughest call of the week was between two A1 winners, Was Just Thinkin and Head Lad. On actual times, it goes to the former. With going allowance taken into consideration, it goes to the latter, by a spot. Both are handled by Paul Miller.
Swift Lethal was unlucky that her Doncaster A1 exploits were overlooked by Cold Fact’s fabulous 450m performances for the last fortnight. This week the old lady was taking on two hotshots in Fill The Till and Moanteen Sonny in arguably the weaker of Saturday’s two A1 races. But Sean Parker’s black was more than up to the task with a 29.94 win.
Meanwhile, All England Cup fourth Starcash Henry – calculated 29.65/29.70 in his last two races A1 at Donny – took a trip across Yorkshire to take Sunday’s 462m open at Kinsley in 27.70 (-20).
Monmore was running -120 at the start of the week but (+10) by Saturday night when Skyfall Marty convincingly landed the A1 by four lengths in 28.48. A special mention too though for pup Becky The Boo who made it 3:3 when taking an A3 on the same card in 28.54.
Fifteen miles away, Perry Barr was just slightly on the slow side for most of the week. Over two bends, a mention for the consistent top heat sprinter Vault Lad, but the nomination goes to A1 winner Home Bronagh who finally got the better of reigning POW Lakeside Lady with a 28.72 run.
Yarmouth was back running close to ‘N’ by the weekend with the week’s fastest winner Newinn Mover coming closest to breaking the 28.00 barrier with a 28.06 (-10) run.
Henlow and Pelaw Grange both returned to the fold after being frozen out for a week. Errill Can was not the quickest winner on the Sunday lunchtime card. That honour went to Broken Bella in A2. But the blue brindle Can landed the eighth A1 of his career in 25.90.
Henlow staged their first open in more than a year on Sunday night. It went to puppy Timmys Rover in 28.11 (-20). However the quickest run of the week went to the veteran Westmead Mel who picked up an A2 in 27.78 (-20).
