Looking out for a Heross in Queen Mother Memorial?
Track specialist Savana Heross will start favourite to land a second final of the year for the Kevin Boothby/Diane Henry partnership with an ideal red jacketed draw in this afternoon’s final at Sheffield. (The same combo won the Northern Puppy Derby last month).
The 7/4 favourite has more than four lengths to find on Hurry Up Jordan but looks more likely to get a clear run than in last week’s semi final where he first had to shake off the attentions of the exuberant Fridays Eske (10/1). He has five wins in six races at Owlerton from a 27.55 for the 480m through 660m all the way up to 934m. A repeat of his Feb 25 run would probably be good enough.
Hurry Up Jordan (5/2) is the clear danger following an impressive win in last week’s qualifier though the Laurels third faces another significant obstacle in the game useful Dubai Kid (6/1) who is in the form of his career.
Tom Heilbron picked up the other qualifier/forecast with Freedom Ellie and Freedom Charm. They are both quoted at 6/1 though Charm, who ran Savana Heross to just over a length, looks the much better value.
Full form
Two Kings and Three Queens – a winning hand for Liz
5-Liz McNair, 2-Stuart Maplesden, 2-Mark Wallis.
Of the nine opens at Central Park on Saturday, five went to a powerful hand of two Kings and three Queens bred locally by the KSS Syndicate.
The star of the night was Derby favourite King Memphis with the first sub-29.00 run (28.98) since Droopys Clue set the track record of 28.83 last October. That takes his career tally to: 20 races, 13 wins, 5 seconds, two thirds. However the MWD Syndicate will be equally thrilled with puppy Newinn Deejay who ran Memphis to three quarters of a length and looks a fabulous stayer in the making.
Memphis’ litter brother King Capaldi and sister Queen Shakira* completed a treble covered by 22 spots with Capaldi clocking a stunning 3.05 sectional. Their ‘cousins’, the sisters Queen Joni and Queen Georgia*, were within five spots of each other, 29.24/29.29
Champion trainer Wallis might have missed out on the middle distance but made up with sprinter Quarteira, while Coonough Crow set a new track record for the 664m trip.
The Maplesden travelling ‘exes’ were more than paid for by Dastardly Punk and Punkrock Warrior
* Videos to follow Full results
Ovett and co at Monmore
Saturday was the last racing opportunity for potential PGR (Monmore) Puppy Derby runners to tackle the Wolverhampton circuit and it was Greenwell Ovett who shone brightest among the hopefuls.
Now handled by Jimmy Fenwick, the dog withdrawn off colour after impressing in the opening round of the Northern Puppy Derby made it three wins in four races with the quickest time of the day, 28.31 (all -10).
Four of the five winners were progeny of Droopys Sydney. The exception was the next quickest winner (28.57), Ballymac Zari (Ballymac Cooper-Ballymac Araminta, Jul 22) trained by Kevin Hutton.
Patrick Janssens sent a van of four but only Deelish Nora was successful on the day in 28.60. A double involving kennelmate Slick Serenity was foiled by Cor Blimey‘s short head in 28.66. Ian Langford’s local had won A3 last time out.
Fan Bees United’s day started well with Clona Kody winning for Richard Rees in 28.61, even if things didn’t go quite so well for the Brentford FC team later in the day. Full results
The Premier Greyhound Racing Puppy Derby first round takes place next Saturday afternoon.
Opens
Sunday: Crayford • Sheffield • Towcester
Monday: Nottingham
