By Rob Abrey
With the Essex Vase over 575 metres starting in three weeks time, Romford have shrewdly put on a maiden stayers competition. With three weeks to go now is the perfect time to test the staying credentials of a greyhound and see if they have what it takes to mix it with the proven stayers like Fivestar Clipper and Roswell Romanov.
Early pace? Tick. Ability to run different tracks? Tick. Stay? The jury is out.
We are talking Alfies Diamond trained by Towcester’s Patrick Janssens. Running at 8.03pm in the first heat the son of Droopys Scolari and Momentinnewyork clearly has an abundance of early pace and showed this by reaching the final of the Bar One Irish Sprint Cup over 366 metres at Dundalk.
The June ’14 whelp won two heats of the five round competition and you don’t achieve that if you don’t have early pace. He has won over 480 metres at Shelbourne and has had races over 503 metres at Limerick winning neither. Trainer Patrick Janssens know what type of dog it takes to win over 575 metres at Romford as he has done it on numerous occasions when working with champion trainer Mark Wallis. So can Alfies Diamond stay?
Janssens said: “I’m not sure if he stays but I’m going to give it a go. He is new in the kennels and we have given him a couple of trials around Towcester. He made the final of the Sprint cup at Dundalk and is a very pacey dog. He has so much pace for 400 to 500 metres but if he doesn’t lead he probably won’t win.
“We are using the race tonight as a trial and hope he gets through to the final next week. We intend to race him over six bends for a couple of weeks so we can see how he gets on and not make a decision after just one race. We have had dogs in the past that you feel are certain to stay but didn’t so you never know but we will give him a chance. It is a tough race with Bang On Giles in trap three and Droopys Elite in six so will see how he goes.”
Makeit Rennie trained by Frank Gray of Towcester in the third heat at 8.50pm is another stepping up over six bends for the first time but also has immense early pace. Over 400 metres on Tuesday in a trial the son of Brett Lee and Benghazi Babe clocked a calculated time of 24.11 seconds. For a dog being stepped up over six bends that time is very impressive.
That time alone would have been good enough to win five of six open races over 400 metres last week. The September ’14 whelp has done all his running in this country and has won an open race at Wimbledon over 480 metres clocking an impressive calculated time of 28.59 first time around. To do that without a trial shows he has talent and could be real player for the Essex Vase later this month.
Frank Gray said: “He is not tried and tested over the longer trip but I wouldn’t put him over six bends if I didn’t think he would get it. I would be disappointed if he lead and didn’t win as he does look a front runner. He is an exciting dog and could be really good. He is from a good litter and looks like he could have a future over this trip.”
