Two fabulous meetings on Saturday night with Hove boasting both Cat One, Two and Three finals. Just about an impossible task to compare performances, notably from Betsys Bullet in the Brighton Belle, Ballymac John in the Seasons Scaffolding Puppy Cup and Gougane Jet in the sprint decider. Perhaps controversially, we’ll go for the latter in clocking the fastest 285m run this year. More reliable than death and taxes, that was Jet’s 22nd win 29 races, almost a 76% strike rate.
Meanwhile at Perry Barr, Hawkfield Ozark made it 9 wins from 17 races when taking the ARC Laurels Final. The Irish Sprint Cup winner found six spots from last week, with the last three proving decisive in a victory over former Janssens’ charge Goldies Perryman who is in the form of his life.
Midlands neighbours Monmore were ‘only’ staging graded fare on the same evening, but with A1s won in 28.39, 28.36 and 28.27, there was plenty to keep the locals interested. The quickest of the trio was Mirrenofpaisley, runner-up in last year’s maiden final. Another interesting winner on the night was Regency runner-up Bombardier in an S1 graded event.
The latest Derby betting sees Distant Podge quoted at 66-1. There were many trading at much shorter odds on Sunday afternoon when Barrie Draper’s Puppy Classic winner joined the sub-29 club when taking six spots off his own FOY for the Derby course. That’s nine wins in 15 career races.
A string of decent quality opens at Nottingham on Monday including FOY performances over 480 (Bockos Leah) and 680 metres (Havana Heross). Contrast and compare? It has to be Kevin Boon’s black. The 28.31 must rate as her best performance in 15 months (possibly just behind the 27.99 Shelb.Pk) and is the quickest time over course and distance since Churchill Holly’s 28.22 back in August 2021.
There was an impressive run from home bred Acomb Alfie at Sheffield on Tuesday. Kevin Ferguson’s brindle clocked 28.65 over the 500 metre course at 20 months old. But this 28.68 was on slower going and having to graft his way to the front. He surely has a 28.50 run in him?
The clock remains of limited use at Harlow but in terms of open races, there was only one over the standard distance this week. It went to Steve Fletcher’s Poker King, a dog who finds the Towcester (D1) 270 a bit sharp but the Henlow (A3) 460 a bit testing. Was Curtistown Mac’s 26.59 in A5 on Sunday a better run? It’s hard to tell.
Thursday is developing into an interesting daytime window for opens with a dozen split between Swindon and Suffolk Downs. Both were decent quality too. On a very soggy track, pick of the Swindon winners was Headford Harry whose 15.52 was recorded on -30 going. (TR 15.10). The Hutton runner has seven wins in 12 outings at the track.
At Suffolk Downs, Luna Jezabelle sliced 44 spots off the quickest time for the 548 metres to set what would now appear to be a very respectable track record. ‘Miss Versatile’ has open wins on four different tracks between 400-874 metres.
Meanwhile at sister track Henlow, Savana Sunlight replaces Savana Raven as the POW. The litter sister of Droopys Good recently completed a run of six wins and three seconds from 11 races with the fastest time of the week, 27.64. It is her fastest run over course and distance in a Henlow career of around two and a half years.
The highlight of Friday night’s racing was an Oxford 450m track record for Coppice Elmo. The half brother of Lautaro 26.81 was one spot inside the previous best held by Fromposttopillar. Interestingly, it was his 11th time over course and distance and his best three previous runs were 27.39, 27.39 and 27.40.
While at Romford, there was a new ‘Fastest of Year’ for the 400 metre course with the Ian Greaves bred, Paul Burr trained Supa Nova. A prolific winner at Yarmouth (Best 27.56) and Oxford (27.06calc), he already had 23.66 and 23.68 winning form at London Road before popping up with a 23.60 (+10) run.
Speaking of Yarmouth, and Ian ‘Swift’ Greaves, there was a new FOY for the 462 metres recorded on Saturday. Swift Loves – a 29.40 Towcester winner from a litter that includes open winner Slider McCoy, Old Fort Beetee and Ranches King – clocked 27.64, some 47 spots outside the track record which is jointly held by her sire, King Elvis.
While Romford is usually a ‘400 or 575’ decision, nowhere throws up more options than Crayford where there were a choice of open race wins over four different distances. With due acknowledgement for Lenson Doolin’s 30th open win in his 61st attempt, we have to go for Julie Luckhurst’s local Kilshannig Marie in probably the highlight of her 43 races to date, a 45.19 run over the 714m course.
Open racing returned to Newcastle this week and it provided a close call over two, four and six bends, courtesy of Laughil Flash (17.04), Crooks Patsy (28.48), and Skywalker Isak (38.90). A tough call, but we’ll edge it to the pup on his first attempt over the extended trip which is just 13 spots slower than Darbys Delight flying FOY.
Under most circumstances, Flemish Prince’s 27.02 would have been enough to get the Sunderland vote. But it is impossible to look past the top local sprinter Definitive Force with a 15.75 run for the sprint. It was the joint third fastest run of the year, the quickest also belonging to the same hound with a 15.68 run.
Completing the North East triangle is ex-Newcastle A4 grader Errill Can who clocked the only sub 26.00 time at Pelaw Grange this week, 25.87.
Central Park have been experiencing issues with a waterlogged circuit, so great credit to trackstaff for producing a surface that enabled Burnchurch Mick to clock 29.00 on Sunday afternoon, by some distance the fastest time of the year.
Just over an hour earlier, Footfield George produced the week’s best run at Doncaster when seeing off an A1 field in 29.75. It was another flamboyant last-to-first run from Kenny Bowman’s black who was eight lengths adrift of the favourite off the second bend.
The final selection stays in Yorkshire and goes to Mick Hurst’s Stormy News with the quickest run in the ARC Gymcrack semi finals at Kinsley on Sunday night. The fawn June pup was just six spots off the quickest run over course and distance this year with a 27.59 run.
