There were several notable performances at Sunderland on Friday. Bramble Linton’s 26.89 was almost two lengths slower than his semi final run of the PGR Classic but it was the most important win for a dog just as able over two bends and with a 16.63 sprint trial at Newcastle (FOY 16.77) on his card. A mention too for Grand Prix winner Farneys Willie whose record is three from four over course and distance and the returning veteran Laughil Flash with a 15.75 sprint win.
Next Sunday features the finals of the Cat 1 Gold Collar and Grand National at Crayford and is have proven impossible to separate this weekend’s semi final winners. Signet Harper, who has the fastest 380m recording of the year, 23.28, was just two spots away in the National. While in the Collar, Droopys Eunice was a similar time margin away from the fastest 540 run of the year jointly shared by Ritzy Empress and Miss Syd.
Oaks winner Druids Say Go broke 28.00 for the fourth time this year with a 27.89 run (her actual times were 27.82TR, 27.86, 27.89 x 2) over 480m at Perry Barr on Saturday. But she was ‘Top Trumped’ on the night by Rioja Oisin who shaved another three spots off his own sprint record with a 15.68 run. The blue Scurry winner has now won seven of his eight races since joining ‘Big Kev’ Hutton.
To reach a Category One final with just two races on your card is a fabulous achievement for Paul Young’s Bombay Birch whose 28.92 was the fastest of the English Puppy Derby semi final runners on Sunday. It was an identical clock to his first round run with Ballymac Lucia beaten 3½ lengths and 2½ lengths. But then King Jackson (29.28), two months younger, reaches his first Cat One after just one race, having been a runner in last week’s void first round heat.
It was always likely that the fastest heat winner of the Eclipse would be the Nottingham selection and so it has proved with Droopys Plunge recording the second quickest 500 of the year, 29.16. A winner of the €10K Linehan Open Unraced Stake at Cork when he was just 20 months old, he is the fourth fastest hound over the Curreaheen Park 525 yard course with a 27.94 run, 11 spots slower than Bockos Diamond. A mention too for Rioja Oisin who prepared for his National Sprint attempt with a 17.66 run for the sprint.
Droopys Display didn’t contest the Eclipse, perhaps due to a couple of indifferent trials, 30.11 and 29.92. On Thursday he went to Hove and clocked the second fastest 515m run of the year, 29.55. The interesting story though is surely his SP? In his first race back, after beating King Memphis in the Kent Derby, in a new 491m track record at Central Park, Maxine Locke’s runner went to traps as an 8/1 chance. To be fair, he did start at 10/1 and 25/1 on his previous two visits to the track.
Display’s litter brother Droopys Vivacity produced the third fastest 630m run of the year at Monmore when clocking 37.45 on Saturday night. However, it seems an impossible task to choose between him and Kilmore Dancer with a 28.03 win over the 480m course (The Other Boss was only beaten a head in the same race). Dancer’s time was 15 spots short of El Tornillo’s FOY. He is also the joint third fastest over the Drumbo Park four bends (28.44).
Like every British bred youngster, Agile Dorothy has had to learn her trade without the schooling track and slow qualifying standards of her Irish counterparts. But she is making a pretty decent job of it having won for the fourth time in 10 races, and in no lesser company than the Doncaster top heat. She thereby added the 29.55 A1 win to a CV which also shows a B1 win in 27.99. Definitely one for the notebook along with the Jun’23 pup Tough Call who produced a 27.77 run for the 450.
Staying in Yorkshire and Kinsley’s outstanding ‘462’ of the week was a Friday afternoon A2 featuring a string of regulars in this column, notably Thistleblower and Lynnway Touch. But none could live with Highview Roots who romped up in 27.52 which is the third fastest run of the year. Bev Heaton’s 26 kilo black was just two spots off Breakthebiscuit’s best time.
Fast open racers, precocious pups and sturdy veterans all make this chart at one time of another. Yarmouth’s Table Talk belongs in the ‘slow burner’ category. Originally graded in A6 company some 19 months ago, it took him five months to reach top heat and he has hovered around the 28.00 mark for most of the time since. But last Wednesday, Jane Craske’s 16/1 chance produced the run of his career when beating 6/4fav and kennelmate Laugh Alot (presumably named by the bookies) in 27.74.
From slow burner to ‘even slower burner’ and Harlow regular Alberta Jamie. It was in July ’22 that the veteran white and blue made his UK debut for Dan Brabon when well beaten in A7 company at Central Park. On Friday night and contesting race no.87, Debbie Hurlock’s 5/1 chance recorded the fastest run over the week over Harlow’s 415m trip with a 26.20 beating of POW regulars Soul Destroyer, Lemming Pride and the unfortunate Springside Cloda who went amiss.
Delvin Cat (8/13f) clocked the fastest ‘480’ of the week at Newcastle on Thursday, 28.55. Last week he was narrowly beaten by Blackhouse Kim. Although she was seven spots slower on the timer, (on going reckoned to be 10 spots slower) the locally bred young bitch wins extra points for consistency having now won her last three races, or four consecutive A1 events.
The loyalty programme to existing POW is also extended to Romford. So despite the 23.76 run by Gingers Prince, the Puppy Cup third is overlooked in favour of the consistency of Bacon Roll who clocked 23.88 when extending her winning sequence to five (a 3,438/1 acca. Get in! A mention too for Paul Young’s sprinter Bombay Jupiter who extended his winning sequence to four with a 13.45 run.
With a 28.23 on his card at Limerick, expectations of Emmybell Boy were pretty high when he joined Tom Levers earlier in the year. A 29.51 heat win in the Greyhoundtrader Stakes was his only success at Towcester and he went 12 races without a win. Now with Sean Gresham, he still hasn’t set Swindon alight but was the quickest greyhound over the 476m trip this week when winning a minor open on Thursday.
Monleek Peru’s UK debut didn’t go quite to plan when he was sent sprawling across the Swindon sand back in June. But having been A3 at Blunsdon, the O’Sullivan trained blue brindle has shown a much greater preference for the Central Park 491m where he won A1 on debut. He has continued to progress which culminated in a new PB and the fastest run of the week, 29.11.
The Bet365 Challenge Cup gets underway at the end of the month and Gagas Merry will be one of the leading local fancies. On Saturday, Ron Jury’s brindle won for the third time in her last four outings clocking 39.49 on a track rated -15. (Havana Top Note’s clock is 39.19). A mention too for Sir Oreo with his 10th win in 17 races over course and distance and a new PB of 26.65 (-10).
A couple of 28.24 runs on the same card by Unwanted Present and Hawkfield Faith complicated the Valley selection but along came Faith’s half brother Hawkfield Scar with a 15.82 open race sprint win which is the seventh fastest of the year. Scar is the joint track record holder at 15.68. To think, the first two sprints on the card were won in 17.23 and 17.03; it just goes to remind us of the opportunities to race even for dogs of comparatively average ability.
The Sheffield call was between two of Lisa Stephenson’s runners who were both successful on Sunday’s open card. Pattys Scoot, who was running A4 at the start of the year, won the week’s quickest 500m race in 28.95. But 18 minutes earlier it was kennelmate Fabulous Salsa who won the day’s most competitive 660m open in 39.49. The former Towcester A3/A4 runner beat a field that included the defending POW Pearl Drops and St.Leger finalist Trickycinderella.
To complete the week, two very competitive A2s at Pelaw on Sunday night. The first was won by Dairyhill Suzi in 25.69. The second, was five spots slower, but arguably at least half a grade higher and featured a number of runners who have dominated POW over the last couple of months. Chief among them was Chippy Chase who was denied a five-timer by a short head last week when beaten by Cloncunny Black. He finished third with another recent ‘Performer’ Emilys Superstar separating the pair.
