Romford advance card released for Friday
The 12-race card that will be live on Gone To The Dogs is out!
The £20,000 to the winner Premier Greyhound Racing Champion Stakes is the feature of the evening at 9.11. If the semi-final clash between New Destiny and Aayamza Sydney is anything to go by, the final has the potential to be one of the races of the year.
Prior to the main event is the Coral Silver Standard Final. The 400m contest has a strong lineup of its own. Brindle Bully has won five straight starts for David Mullins. He clashes with Pro Parker who has won both his heat and semi.
Races over two, four, six and eight bends make up the evening. They include the Maurice Newman Memorial Marathon as well as sponsorship from Time who launched their club recently. GB Skip Hire, who were responsible for the recent match race at the London Road track, have also sponsored a race.
If you can’t make it on Friday night then tune in to Gone To The Dogs – Live! broadcasting from Romford on the night, starting at 6.15.
A Kent winner of the PGR Kent Derby?
Three runners for the county in the £20,000 final on Saturday.
English Greyhound Derby finalist King Memphis, Hunt Cup champion Havana Top Note and Open Race winner Atomic Crimes all qualified for Central Park Stadium’s showpiece race at the weekend.
Ashford-based Liz McNair’s King Memphis will start a hot favourite after lowering his own track record in the middle semi-final where he stopped the clock at 28.57.
Kennel mate Havana Top Note qualified for his seventh Category One final thanks to a late burst of speed in the third semi while Harvel-based Tony Collett watched Atomic Crimes finish second in the first.
The competition’s three other finalists – Droopys Manowar, Droopys Display and El Tornillo – are also trained in the south-east by Maxine Locke (Droopys Manowar and Droopys Display) and Dave Lee respectively.
Rab McNair, assistant trainer to his wife, is hopeful of winning a sixth Category One title this year come Saturday but is equally mindful of the strong competition.
“A lot of people are excited about El Tornillo, and rightly so,” said Rab. “But I’m not writing off any greyhound in the final – it’s a Category One race and they’re all in it for a reason.
“It can be a bit of a guessing game working out how long it will take to get a greyhound to full fitness. Throughout the competition we’ve said King Memphis has more to come, and that’s been the case.
“All the preparation is complete, now we just have to keep our fingers crossed that things fall into place on the night.
“(Havana) Top Note looks at me every day at home and tells me he wants a six-bend race. He’s in great form and he’s finishing his races so strongly right now – he’s a mile clear at the pick-up.
“We’ll look forward to Saturday’s final with him and then maybe give the Gold Collar a go at Crayford next month.”
The Essex challenge
Trained by Epping-based Dave Lee, El Tornillo is the Premier Greyhound Racing Kent Derby’s only unbeaten finalist. The two-year-old brindled dog is second favourite to scoop the top prize – and his trainer believes he stands every chance of finishing in front if he has his trapping boots on.
Lee said: “Planning for these competitions is the easy part – executing that plan is where it gets difficult. He’s won at eight different tracks in the UK so he is incredibly versatile and he has been a brilliant greyhound for us.
“It’s a quality final, but if he traps well he should lead the dogs on his inside to the first bend where we need him to be in front. This is his first Category One final which is special to us, we’ve believed in his ability from when he started trialling so hopefully luck will be on our side.”
Hove Sales report
All 36 lots that were presented sold at Hove yesterday for a total of £70,150 with over 55% of the greyhounds remaining with trainers attached at Hove.
The rainfall was heavy the night before and the morning of the trials, resulting in the Racing office calling for a track inspection and thus trials were delayed by 30 minutes to 10:30am. The times looked slow on the day and local experts were estimating -30/-40 for their calculations.
Top lot of the day was Droopys Dettori, who sold for £6000 after steering a wide course and stopping the clock in 30.34 from a 3.68 split. Dettori will now join the Maxine Locke kennels.
Fastest of the day was Faypoint Sydney who recorded 29.74 and he was sold to Tony Taylor’s kennels for £5600.
Nathan Corden said “It is pleasing to see plenty of the sold greyhounds remain at Hove and in fact just under 70% of the sold greyhounds have ended up in Entain trainers’ kennels just proving the value of tracks staging Sales with the perceived shortage of greyhounds.”
Nottingham Monday Review
Faithful Friend adds a fourth straight open race win.
Jim Daly’s consistent bitch won her fourth straight open. It was her seventh win in her last nine starts in all company. Links Weapon would produce a quicker time over the same 480m trip later on the card for Sarah Spillane. His 28.68 was the sixth fastest of the year over the trip and two quicker than he went in September.
It was a below par night for Kylenoe Bilbo who had won his last two sprints in fast times. Honours went to Bluejig Ophelia for Yvonne Bell in 17.83 while the other sprint on the night went to Dean Blackbird’s Hopes Sharkie in 17.95. Jason Gray’s Fabulous Tempo held off Select Stayers winner Vale Bluebell in the 730m contest.
Australian racing to get rid of earmarking
November 1 is the date that signals the end of any litters being earmarked there.
Australia are moving over to a reliance on the implanted microchips from the end of this month. They will also be using nose prints as a secondary form of identification. The Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission state “This move highlights the industry-wide commitment to drive the best possible standards of greyhound welfare.”
Could this be the way forward in England and Ireland as well at some point?
Stats
- Distant Josh – 6.53 Swindon – 4/8 from the red jacket at the track.
- Scatter Milo/Skywalker Tino – 6.56 Doncaster – Milo is 5/6 in D1 grade from trap 2, Tino is 3/3 in D1 from trap 3!
- Keefill Halo – 7.51 Doncaster – 5/7 so far in his career at the track.
Opens
Friday: Romford
Saturday: Central Park ♦ Perry Barr
Sunday: Sheffield
