There ws a four-timer for the ‘Romeo boys and Fabulous girls’ and a treble for the ‘Kings and Queens’ and the  as the opening round of the 77th British Bred Produce Stakes proved an excellent advert for home breeding.

The opening round of competition is usually a filtering system for sorting the ‘real players’ from the rest and while this is largely still true, there were no ‘1-8, 1-10’ shots as if often the case. Six of the nine winners started favourite though the first two only got home on the nod.

Quickest on the day was December puppy Queen Joni with another gutsy display and a 27.84 run, the fastest time of the year to date. It is one of the peculiarities of the event that had she been born 15 days later, she would be contesting next year’s Produce whereas had Romeo Hotshot and Fabulous Bling been born two days earlier, they would have run in last year’s event.

Overall it was a good days for the KSS Sydicate with only Queen Pink eliminated from their team of nine runners. While owner/breeder Dave Firmager’s winning quartet are handled by three different trainers and from two different litters, with six qualifiers, including the renamed Savana Top Cat.

Kevin Ferguson had an impressive winner in Acomb Alfie with littermates Felix, Jasper and Irene safely through. There was also a tasty punt on Paul Lithgow’s The Bulldog who returned a 7-1 shot and never looked like getting beat.